Larry Kudlow, the former economic adviser to President Ronald Reagan, said the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers should push for business tax cuts as soon as possible, and sort out personal income tax cuts later.
“You can separate out business income from personal income,” he said in a discussion on CNBC about the viability of changes to the tax code. “You have hundreds of lawyers down there [in Washington]. Tax lawyers can do that … But it's really about rate reduction. It's really about making us more competitive and bringing capital in back to the United States.”
President Donald Trump’s economic agenda took a beating this month when internal divisiveness led Republicans to withdraw a plan to change the Affordable Healthcare Act, also known as Obamacare. The stock market suffered its biggest one-day loss since before the election as investors began to question whether Trump would fulfill campaign pledges to cut taxes, promote jobs growth and re-build roads, bridges and airports.
Kudlow debated Steve Rattner, the chairman of Willett Advisers Llc. who oversaw the Obama administration’s bailout of the auto industry, in the feasibility of completing tax reform this year. Rattner is skeptical.
“Tax reform takes a long time,” he said. “I don't know why they're saying August. I think really a year or more is what it normally takes. I do think that the failure to deal with the healthcare bill puts more pressure on the Republicans and on the Trump administration to get a win on the board.”
Kudlow, was an economic adviser to the Trump campaign, said the key to a tax reform victory is to focus on business taxes first, even if that means running deficits over the next few years.
“Get the business stuff done,” said Kudlow, a radio talk-show host and CNBC senior contributor. “It will help the economy. We haven't had business investment in 20 years. It's a bipartisan critique I'm making. Go for the gold.”
The economy is suffering from a lack of business investment, Kudlow told CNBC in a separate interview.
“There's some spending going on. What's missing is investment, business investment,” the Newsmax Finance Insider said.
“The single most important part of the economy in my judgment and, behind that what's missing is productivity,” said Kudlow — host of "The Larry Kudlow Show" and author of "JFK and the Reagan Revolution: A Secret History of American Prosperity," written with Brian Domitrovic and published by Portfolio.
To find out more about Larry Kudlow and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.
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