Death Tax Repeal Is Key to Tax Reform’s Political and Economic Future

By Ryan Ellis – October 27, 2017

When the GOP released their “Framework” for tax reform last month, official Washington got excited that they could finally chew on all sorts of wonky tax details. They will get even more excited when the full package is out this week. That’s why it was very disappointing to read that Senate Finance Committee Republicans were considering keeping the death tax in place. That would be a grievous error.

The simplest part of the White House-Senate-House tax reform “Framework” is at the same time one of the most powerful:

The Framework repeals the death and generation-skipping transfer taxes.

That’s it. Ten simple words that might hold the key to the dual goals of this tax reform plan: first, to pass it; and second, to bring real economic growth back up to the “old normal” of 3 percent annually.

It’s no secret that it’s hard to pass things in Washington these days. Many of us are still licking our wounds over not being able to pass Obamacare repeal (yet).

So it’s imperative that Republicans unite around tax reform in a way that they never managed to on health care reform. It’s essential to get the public on our side. It’s mandatory for us to put pressure on Democrats.

Death tax repeal does all these things.

Nobody likes the death tax–even Democrats

Let’s start with public opinion. Every poll I can remember going back over two decades has said that repealing the death tax is a lopsided issue in favor of repeal, usually with greater than two-thirds support. The latest poll–sponsored by of all outlets National Public Radio–confirms this.