Tax Cuts For Trump Are Equivalent To D-Day’s Breakout At Omaha Beach

The allied invasion at Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944, is a model for Trump’s invasion of Washington, D.C.

D-Day consisted of America, Canadian, and British troops landing on five beaches codenamed Juno, Gold, Utah, Sword, and Omaha. The landings at the first four were relatively successful.  In marked contrast, things were going so badly at Omaha Beach that Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower at one point considered retreat.

After large losses in men and material, U.S. forces finally broke through German defenses and seized higher ground.  However the objectives sought for D-Day required three more days for consolidation.  If Omaha Beach had not been secured, it is likely the invasion would have failed.  I leave it to historians to contemplate the counter-factual.

The Trump administration is working to change policy on a number of fronts.  The White House website lists several issues on the Trump agenda, but jobs, jobs, jobs tops them all.  The success of President Trump depends on higher economic growth and job creation.

Tax cuts and deregulation are the keys to growth.  Deregulation can be done piecemeal over time, but the effort to secure tax cuts needs an immediate, comprehensive, coordinated push on all fronts lest tax cuts get bogged down in hedgerows of interest group politics and conflicting personalities.  Each day that goes by without tax cuts, despite happy talk from Republican congressional leaders of a 200-day timetable, puts the objective of job-creating tax cuts at risk.

The White House and the House of Representatives agree on several features of tax cuts--lower rates on corporations (15-20%), small business (25%), individuals (top rate of 33%), and investment income (dividends, interest, capital gains). They agree on replacing multi-year depreciation with first-year write-off (expensing) of investment.  They agree on repealing the estate (death) tax.  They should wrap these measures up in a bill, with the tax cuts backdated to January 1, 2017, quickly move it through both houses of Congress, and send it to the president for his signature.

That would represent the equivalent of the breakthrough at Omaha Beach.  Thereafter, if it wishes, Congress can debate other aspects of taxation.  But if Congress gets bogged down with such peripheral issues as revenue neutrality and border adjustability, the overriding objective of tax cuts risks being trapped on Omaha Beach facing withering fire from artillery and machine guns.  Failure on tax cuts likely means failure on growth, jobs, and President Trump.