Will the Republicans Get Tax Reform? - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
Will the Republicans Get Tax Reform?
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Washington

It has long been my conviction that Democrats are the more adept pols, the most tireless pols, the most political pols. I have said that their political libido is that of a nymphomaniac. By that I mean to compliment them, at least to compliment their political skills. The political libido of the Republicans is, by comparison, the political libido of a Victorian lady, complete with white gloves and parasol.

We saw the Republicans’ coyness about playing politics just last week when they began backing away from supporting Roy Moore the leading candidate for the Senate seat left vacant when Jeff Sessions became Attorney General. Though Moore has never been charged with sexual misconduct in over forty years of public life suddenly, four and a half weeks before the election that was scheduled for December 12, a 53-year old woman steps out of oblivion to accuse Moore of having had some sort of sexual encounter with her 38 years ago when she was 14 and he was in his early 30s — by comparison William Jefferson Clinton was 49 years old and Monica Lewinsky was a nubile 22. Moore denies it and he denies the charges of five other recovering female amnesiacs, some with mysterious Democratic ties.

What is Moore to do as his fellow Republicans in Washington start melting away? Do you recall a famous Democrat of long ago in the late stages of an election threatening to charge his opponent with having had sex with a barnyard animal? The famous Democrat’s aides were appalled and objected strenuously, but the candidate only shrugged and observed, “Can you see my opponent campaigning throughout the state saying he did not have sex with barnyard animals?”

As I say, Democrats play the great game of politics much better than Republicans. You can count the number of Democrats who have weathered sexual allegations and won their subsequent election in the hundreds. You can begin with Senator Ted Kennedy. I say Moore should continue his campaign. The Senate is too important for the Republicans to lose. If the Republicans roosting up in Washington do not realize this I am sure the Republicans in Alabama realize it.

While they are comfortably counseling Moore and his allies from afar, I hope they will not forget that now their most important duty is to pass a tax reform bill. They assure us that they will do it by year’s end. The House has one bill that is ensuring economic growth and middle-class tax relief. The Senate has another that achieves the same goal, though each bill is different. They promise to reconcile the bills by year’s end. It is very important that they do.

Larry Kudlow, a supply-side economist spoke last week at the Senate Republican breakfast and reported optimistically on his experience. “What I observed,” he said, “was a total commitment among the GOP senators to get a tax bill by year-end.” “This will not be another health-care breakdown,” Kudlow observed. There will be a cut in the business tax rate from 35% to 20%, which will create jobs and middle-class wealth. Yet he wrote with some urgency because if there are no tax-cuts and a concomitant economic growth, the scenario is bleak. “If Republicans don’t get it,” he noted, “they’ll lose control of Congress” in 2018, and with that comes increased gridlock, no possible health-care reform, and even the specter of impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.

The Republicans have been bellowing for years that they would repeal and replace Obamacare. They are unlikely to do it. They have promised other changes in the way the government works, but at this point all that seems unlikely too. They simply have to reconcile and pass tax reform or they will have nothing to show for their domination of government of late. Coming up empty-handed in 2018 will not be Donald Trump’s doing. It will be the Republicans’ fault, and relinquishing a seat in the Alabama senatorial delegation is not going to make tax reform any easier.

R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.
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R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is the founder and editor in chief ofThe American Spectator. He is the author of The Death of Liberalism, published by Thomas Nelson Inc. His previous books include the New York Times bestseller Boy Clinton: The Political Biography; The Impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton; The Liberal Crack-Up; The Conservative Crack-Up; Public Nuisances; The Future that Doesn’t Work: Social Democracy’s Failure in Britain; Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House; The Clinton Crack-Up; and After the Hangover: The Conservatives’ Road to Recovery. He makes frequent appearances on national television and is a nationally syndicated columnist, whose articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, Washington Times, National Review, Harper’s, Commentary, The (London) Spectator, Le Figaro (Paris), and elsewhere. He is also a contributing editor to the New York Sun.
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