By Natalia Castro
As founder of the Drudge report, Matt Drudge has led the conservative news reel and with one tweet appears to have successfully pushed President Donald Trump and the GOP Congress into action. The tweet of Feb. 8, 2017 read, “Republican party should be sued for fraud. NO discussion of tax cuts now. Just lots of crazy. Back to basics, guys!”
Drudge called upon Republicans in Congress to initiate the tax reform they claimed would be integral to dismantling the burdens on middle class Americans which have stifled economic growth. But with no contextualized plans, media groups have begun wondering if the Republicans promises were purely political.
Trump, for his part, is not handling Capitol Hill like a politician. He did not ignore Drudge’s plea, he vowed to deliver, even while Congress figures out what to do.
Nearly immediately following the Drudge tweet, Trump assured airline industry leaders during a White House listening session on Feb. 9, “Lowering the overall tax burden on American businesses big league, that’s coming along very well. We’re way ahead of schedule, I believe, and we’re going to be announcing something, I would say, over the next two or three weeks that will be phenomenal in terms of tax.”
Normally this would seem like another political promise which many feel would never be resolved, but Press Secretary Sean Spicer clarified for Republicans when directly asked about the tweet that, “the President, while he wants to get this done as soon as possible and understand what’s at stake, he wants to do it right… And so his goal is to get it done right and have an outcome that achieves the goals that it sets out to do.”
For the American people used to hearing politicians promise one thing on the campaign trail, but forgetting about it once elected, this has to be somewhat refreshing.
Unlike most politicians which ignore media criticisms, Trump has shown a track record for being responsive, and in this case is promising to stick to his promise and give the people what they want: tax relief to reduce the cost of business in the U.S. to help create jobs.
It’s a pattern for Trump, who has maintained the hard line he promised to the American people relating to immigration, security, and most recently, criminal justice.
But the president does not write tax reform, Congress does. So, while Trump might be doing everything he can to maintain his promises, the real politicians in Washington, D.C. need to do the same.
Jeanne Sahadi of CNN Money reminded that the Senate Finance Committee, which is in charge of tax reform policy, has yet to offer its own reform proposal or take a meaningful look into either the House Republican blueprint or Trump’s ideas.
The same can be said of repealing Obamacare, where the House and Senate budget reconciliation bills still do not contain the text of repeal, let alone of replacing the health care law.
Right now, Republicans have full control over Congress and the Presidency, if Congress wades on tax reform it could be what prevents Republicans from keeping control in the midterms in 2018.
Politicians might not be used to being held accountable for their failures, but being from the business world, President Trump is. So when Trump receives a tweet urging him to push tax reform as he promised, the American people can see him being responsive to that, and can lend trust that he will do it.
However, with a Congress that had the last eight years to formulate replacements for our broken tax code and the health care law, the people must verify to ensure all of government is working in their favor.
Natalia Castro is a contributing editor at Americans for Limited Government.
