Political Diary

Why Obama Killed Tax Reform

Aug. 7, 2013 11:04 a.m. ET

Unless the thinking at the White House radically changes, a grand tax reform deal is dead for this year and probably for the remainder of this presidency.

The conventional wisdom is that tax reform's prospects went down the tubes last year when Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York declared that Senate Democrats have no interest in a revenue neutral tax rewrite and that closing loopholes should be used to raise revenues, not to lower tax rates. The White House and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have said much the same. Mr....

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