As Congress turns its attention to tax reform, Iowans should be aware of two areas in which the success of tax reform will hinge.

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The first area is the legislative process that will be used to pass tax reform. On Aug. 1, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he intended to use a process called reconciliation to pass tax reform on a simple party-line vote. This would be a mistake. The result would likely be a repeat of the contentious, divisive, and ultimately unsuccessful process that just took place around health-care change.

The second area is whether tax reform gives tax cuts to the wealthy. Several tax reform proposals from the Trump
administration, including eliminating the estate tax and alternative minimum tax and lowering the capital-gains tax, would result in concentrating more wealth in the hands of members of our society who are already extremely wealthy.

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Providing tax cuts to those who do not need them is not a justifiable reason to increase our country’s national debt.

I urge my fellow Iowans to contact their senators and representatives in Congress to ensure a bipartisan and responsible overhaul of the U.S. tax code.

Clay Pasqual