The tax-reform package being drawn up by Republican lawmakers may take months to enact and that's okay – as long as the tax cuts that come along with it are retroactive to the beginning of the year, says Steve Forbes, chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes Media.
"They can wait until August. The key thing is if they wait that long [is to] make it retroactive to January 1st so that the American people feel this right away," Forbes said Thursday to Steve Malzberg on Newsmax TV’s "America Talks Live."
"So early next year, when they file their tax returns, they're going to get a big refund all to the good. The eye-shaped Republicans, the root canal Republicans, say, oh you can't do that. Yes you can, just do it. No one can stop it."
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Forbes said that no matter what is ultimately contained in the tax-reform bill, nothing should get in the way of "a big tax cut."
"[President] John Kennedy did not make that mistake, Ronald Reagan did not make that mistake. So go big. If you need to fix some things later, fix them but get a big thing done now so … your life is beginning to get better."
Whether tax reform can be passed by the August recess on Capitol Hill is another issue. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, in a Thursday interview with Politico, would not commit to a timetable, saying lawmakers are faced with "some constraints." One is that health care legislation must pass or fail before a tax plan can be considered, he explained.
Forbes is author of "Reviving America: How Repealing Obamacare, Replacing the Tax Code and Reforming The Fed will Restore Hope and Prosperity," written with Elizabeth Ames and published by McGraw-Hill Education.
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