Bernie Becker, writing for The Hill, reports that Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich) is laying the groundwork for much needed tax reform:
“A key congressional tax writer said Tuesday that he thinks an overhaul of the nation’s tax code could happen sooner rather than later, but didn’t seem ready to make a wager on when it might occur. ‘It’s like any other thing in Congress. You’ve got to try and be ready,’ Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, told a collection of corporate financial officers at an event sponsored by The Wall Street Journal. ‘And so what we’re doing is trying to do the work so we’re ready if factors come together. And I think they might.’ Camp, whose panel has held a string of tax reform hearings this year, named the sluggish economy as one reason policymakers might coalesce behind tax reform, signaling that he also thought President Obama might not want to for re-election while there was uncertainty about the Bush tax cuts that are set to expire at the end of 2012. The Michigan Republican also said he would prefer to look at the potentially thorny issue of repatriation within the context of broader reform.”
While Camp has signaled his support for an overhaul of the convoluted tax code, he would insist on reforms that are revenue-neutral:
“But like Geithner, Camp did say that he thought tax reform would need to be done outside of the current debt-ceiling talks led by Vice President Joe Biden. Republicans have generally favored a broad, revenue-neutral reform of the tax code. Geithner and other administration officials have said that they’d like the corporate code to be revamped without adding or subtracting from the deficit, but also that the Bush-era marginal rate for high-income individual taxpayers should rise.”