President Obama and his Republican dining companions showed last week that bipartisan schmoozing is back. Whether bipartisan deal-making will follow is anyone’s guess. But if it does, there are reasons to believe tax reform will be on the menu.
The most visible movement on tax reform is in the House of Representatives. Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) last week announced that the bill name “H.R. 1” would be reserved for tax reform. Traditionally, House speakers have given that title to bills that are among their top priorities. Consider some of the recent bills with that name: the stimulus package of 2009 and the Medicare prescription drug law of 2003.
The H.R. 1 designation signals the end of an internal Republican dispute over whether to proceed with tax reform. Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-OH) previously advised the party to avoid the issue, because its progress could require votes on controversial topics like the mortgage and charitable deductions. But now, with Boehner’s blessing, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) has a green light to pursue his priority issue.
Plan elimination is the first major consequence of PPACA that small-business owners likely feel. -National Federation of Independent Businesses, 07/2011
Actually, studies by the Congressional Budget Office, the Rand Corporation, and the Urban Institute have shown how employers will continue to have strong incentives to cover their workers. They will continue to compete for the best employees by offering benefits that employees want. Employers and employees will also still have strong tax advantages for employment-based coverage.
Read more in our new memo debunking the 12 biggest myths about the Affordable Care Act.
Congress, the Obama administration and business groups are ramping up efforts to pave the way this summer for improved trade relations with Russia, but that work is being complicated by parallel efforts to address human rights concerns in that country.
While the push is being made to repeal the Jackson-Vanik amendment and grant permanent normal trade relations, some lawmakers are also eager to pass a measure designed to signal to Moscow that human rights and national security violations won’t be tolerated as that nation prepares to join the World Trade Organization (WTO).
In the ever complicated realm of U.S.-Russia relations, supporters of repealing Jackson-Vanik — a 37-year-old provision designed to put pressure on Communist nations for human-rights abuses and emigration policies — are emphasizing that Russia’s entry into the WTO does not require the U.S. to pass any additional measures .
“The United States gives up nothing and won’t be required to change its laws,” said Edward Gerwin, senior fellow for trade and global economic policy atThird Way, told The Hill.
“The entire leadership model of a successful CEO is vastly different from that of a successful president. As political commentator Bill Schneider has pointed out, corporations are designed to be more like benevolent dictatorships; in contrast, the presidency is the leadership of a large and unruly democracy.
This dictatorship vs. democracy distinction matters when it comes to three crucial aspects of leadership.
The first one is consensus…Communication is the second key leadership area in which CEO experience and presidential experience diverge…Finally: control. The presidency, for all of its trappings and genuine levers of power and influence, is a far more constrained position…”
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Third Way President Jon Cowan writes for The Washington Post’s ON LEADERSHIP section on the false premise of a “CEO presidency”
