Conservative groups step up tax reform push

Conservative groups and activists are stepping up their push for tax reform, arguing to key GOP lawmakers and administration officials that passage of legislation is key for the midterm elections.

“There is broad consensus on the need for tax reform,” more than 80 conservatives wrote in a letter dated Thursday. “With the 2018 midterm elections in sight, it is also crucial that bold policies keeping the promises made to the American people are realized soon.”

The letter comes one day after plans were announced for the “Big Six” tax-reform negotiators to release a framework document during the week of Sept. 25.

The conservative groups’ letter was addressed to the members of the “Big Six”: Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn.

The signers of the letter said that tax reform is needed because the current tax code “serves well-connected special interests, not hard working American families.”

They said it’s important for legislation to lower tax rates across the board, simplify the tax code, repeal the estate tax and establish a “territorial” tax system that doesn’t tax U.S. companies’ foreign earnings. 

“2017 represents an important opportunity to provide financial security to hardworking taxpayers by signing tax reform into law,” the conservative groups wrote. “We applaud the work that each of you have already taken to ensure tax reform is enacted in 2017 and stand ready to continue working with you in the second half of the year.”

Groups that signed the letter include Americans for Tax Reform, which is led by anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, and Americans for Prosperity, which is backed by wealthy GOP donors Charles and David Koch.

The letter follows another letter from more than 20 conservative groups last week urging House members to back a tax overhaul.