About 7 years ago

08/01/2017 - Midnight Reads – White House, Business Groups Start Major Push to Cut Taxes

White House, Business Groups Start Major Push to Cut Taxes

– The Washington Post

The White House and congressional Republicans — backed by business and conservative groups — are mustering forces to muscle through a large tax cut package later this year. Republicans regard a large tax cut package as a central plank of their economic agenda, one that could touch all Americans, and they want to notch a big victory before the end of President Trump’s first year in office.

 

Ex-Obama Official Pours Cold Water on Trump’s Corporate Tax Cut Target

– MarketWatch

A former top Obama administration tax official is pouring cold water on the idea of the corporate-tax cut being proposed by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, saying the lower rates they’re aiming for may not be possible without inflicting damage on the country’s finances. To get to a corporate rate of 20% or 15% from the current 35%, “you’re either not doing it in a fiscally responsible way or you have some additional revenue source that’s not been fully described yet,” Mark Mazur, the former assistant secretary for tax policy at the Treasury Department, told MarketWatch in an interview.

 

Fast Food Chains Are Coping with Their Labor Cost Problem

– Yahoo Finance 

From Yahoo Finance: Quick-serve and fast-casual restaurants from Domino’s to McDonald’s are feeling the pressure of rising wages. But it might not necessarily spell bad news for results, especially in the long-term. Domino’s CEO Patrick Doyle pointed to wage pressure as a concern, albeit one he was happy to have. “There is pressure out there on wages in general as the labor market continues to strengthen, and that’s a really high-class problem,” Doyle said. “When strength in the labor market is putting pressure on rates, that’s the way you want to see it working.”

 

How to Repair the Health Law (It’s Tricky but Not Impossible)

– The New York Times 

The politics are exceedingly tricky in a divided and dysfunctional Washington, but economists, insurers, doctors and health policy experts across the political spectrum agree that immediately addressing three or four basic shortcomings in the existing system would go a long way toward making the law more effective and financially stable. The New York Times makes the case here.