It’s Fix The Tax Code Friday!
Earlier this week, Forbes contributor Stan Collender boosted his estimate of the chance that there will be a government shutdown from 67% to 75%. Those odds might have gone up even more. Today, Speaker John A. Boehner’s (R-OH) announced that he would step down at the end of October, saying:
My first job as speaker is to protect the institution. It had become clear to me that this prolonged leadership turmoil would do irreparable harm to the institution.
With that, it’s looking more likely than ever that there might not be a consensus in the House in time to stave off a shutdown. Boehner, of course, had been trying to negotiate a deal that would keep the lights on in government but found a roadblock when some in the Republican party advised they would not endorse any spending bill that did not defund Planned Parenthood.
Despite the holdouts, there’s not just one issue holding up a spending bill. Congress faces a number of obstacles in the path to a spending bill. On Thursday, I outlined seven:
- Sequestration
- Carried Interest
- Highway Trust Fund
- Cadillac Tax
- Medical Device Tax
- Planned Parenthood; and
- Timing (short term fix versus long term fix)
All seven are current part of the discussion about spending but are they equally important?
That brings us to today’s Fix The Tax Code Friday question(s):
If you could, with a wave of your hand, reduce the debate over the appropriations bill to the one issue you think most important, which would it be and why?
