Here is a letter sent to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. It is signed by 21 Republican senators:
Sometimes the old songs are the best. Conservatives have been trying to enact a stealth cut in the capital gains tax via inflation indexing for as long as I can remember, but they’ve never been able to get it passed by Congress. So now, encouraged by President Trump’s belief that the executive can do anything he wants, they’ve decided to skip the whole tedious lawmaking thing and just ask Mnuchin to do it by fiat.
I learned about this via Michael Hiltzik, who passes along this analysis from the CBPP:
CBPP estimates that indexing capital gains would cut taxes on the rich by $100-200 billion over ten years. This actually isn’t a huge sum, but in a way that makes this even worse. Are Republicans really this desperate to pander to the rich? They’re really willing to emasculate their own branch of government just for a pitiful little tribute like this? It’s kind of embarrassing.
But you know what they say: a billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money. Keep pushing through little tax actions like this and the rich and powerful will know that you’re doing everything possible to keep them happy.
BY THE WAY: I guess it says something—though I’m not sure what—that only 21 Republicans signed this letter. This means that 32 Republicans declined to sign a letter in support of a tax cut. That probably shows just how bad an idea this is.
