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How can taxpayers get permanent tax reform? ATR president Grover Norquist and Club for Growth president David McIntosh say Congress should use a 25-year budget window, an idea being championed in the Senate by Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). In a Wall Street Journal op-ed this week, Norquist and McIntosh write:

We say extend the budget window to 25 years. Why? Because the people creating jobs and investing in new products think long-term. Depreciation schedules for new plant and equipment often run to 25 years or more.

Lawmakers simply should write this year’s budget to say that all tax cuts can last 25 years, which would allow rate reductions to go into effect now and be offset later with revenue from higher growth or spending restraint.

According to Norquist and McIntosh, there is no good reason why budget windows conventionally last 5, 7, or 10 years. They write:

The idea of modifying the time frame isn’t new, and it certainly isn’t radical. The budget window was expanded in fiscal year 1995 from five years to seven. Congress used the 10-year window for the first time in 2000, but then went back to five years again as recently as 2007.  

Together, Norquist and McIntosh have arrived at a proposal that may slice through the many obstacles to tax reform, unraveling a quagmire they liken to the legendary Gordian knot. “Extending the budget window to 25 years,” they write, “would cut the Gordian knot, unravel the Byrd rule, and allow serious tax reform to create millions of jobs in the years to come.”

Read the full op-ed here

 

Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore