I Still Think There Will Be No Tax Package In 2017 -- Or 2018 -- Until After The Mid-Terms...

. . .But on the small chance that 45 signs some ill-starred, and mean spirited piece of legislation that takes from the middle class, in order to increase tax breaks on private jets, and repeals the estate tax for the wealthiest one-one-hundredth of one per cent of all Americans, as well as vastly benefits his real estate driven empire. . . I will commend this piece in The Atlantic to the readership.

Do go read it all -- it correctly argues that even if a bill is signed into law, most sensible corporations will not change their longer term plans, on a measure they well-know may be repealed or greatly scaled back -- come midterms in late 2018. That is only one year away. Corporate strategists at the tax line think in longer terms. Frum is right -- do go read it all, but here is the concluding bit:

. . . .A rationally conservative party of business and enterprise could, and should, have written a corporate tax reform compelling on the merits. The slowdown of U.S. productivity growth would be the country’s leading problem if U.S. constitutional democracy were not being attacked from the White House at the same time. The GOP submitted to Trump in 2016 very largely to reach this moment. The ironic outcome is that his success that year doomed the very prize for which his party sold its soul. . . .

Indeed -- succinctly, and perfectly put. [After the holiday, in a look across the pond, as it were -- I plan to update the thinking here, on the likely now increasing delays, looming over any Brexit. As I long said, it may end up being almost. . . nothing. The weekend walkout -- on Merkel's latest, coupled to May's troubles -- may mean 2020 or later for any soft Brexit.]

Now. . . as more and more of my usually-geographically-scattered family arrives, I will grow increasingly silent here -- until mid next week, in all likelihood. Be excellent to those you love -- so much to give thanks for, here. Smile.

नमस्ते