Publications

According to the Wall Street Journal, the GOP effort to pass tax reform has hit its first hurdle, as House Republicans from high-tax states have opposed eliminating the state and local tax deductions. Experts expect that the tax reform effort will continue to face roadblocks, as different special interest groups will try to preserve favorable loopholes and deductions. WSJ

The Washington Post reports that Senate Democrats are launching a bipartisan effort to invest $500 billion in infrastructure. Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee recently sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao asking to meet about the infrastructure effort, which should receive broad, bipartisan support. WaPo

Jeffrey Sparshott of the Wall Street Journal writes that the National Association of Manufacturers’ (“NAM”) member survey shows that U.S. manufacturers are reporting record-high levels of optimism regarding the direction of the U.S. economy. NAM says that healthy U.S. growth, strengthening foreign demand, and the prospect of tax reform have all boosted its members’ outlook. WSJ

The Wall Street Journal reports that the new GOP tax plan aims to lower taxes on many individuals and simplify the corporate tax code. The plan will collapse the seven existing person income tax brackets to three new brackets and will lower the corporate tax rate to 20%. WSJ

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances shows that minority households and families with less education enjoyed larger proportional gains in income than others between 2013 and 2016. The Fed says that these results show that the continued economic recovery has reached a wide swath of society despite measures of income inequality worsening over this time period. WSJ

The Washington Post reports that the United States climbed to the world’s second-most competitive economy according to the World Economic Forum’s (“WEF”) Global Competitiveness Report. WEF economists say that the U.S. improved due to innovation and sophistication factors, while the biggest barrier to conducting business in the U.S. was found to be the tax code. WaPo

According to the Financial Times, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen says that policymakers should be wary of moving too gradually on monetary policy. Yellen acknowledged that low inflation may persist for longer than previously thought, but also cautioned that without further increases in the federal funds rate, a sudden surge in inflation could overheat the economy. FT

Aaron Gregg of the Washington Post writes that the U.S. government has moved to impose tariffs of up to 219% on Canadian-made jetliners. The Commerce Department ruled in favor of U.S. jetliner producers, who had argued that their Canadian counterparts have been receiving unfair taxpayer subsidies which allow the Canadian planes to be sold in the U.S. at a discount. WaPo