Running on a big Paul Ryan plan to revamp a major part of the American economy worked so well for them in 2012 that Republicans are
planning to do it all over again. Or anyway, Ryan is going to offer up another Official Republican Plan—only instead of a Medicare-killing budget, this time Ryan is going to outline how his party can cut taxes for the rich in the guise of tax reform:
While declining to offer specifics about what will be in their tax code revamp plan, in interviews Ryan and his allies on the Ways and Means committee laid out the political and policy benefits they see in producing a proposal in the coming months.
For one, it will show the party has a plan to govern that it can execute during the first weeks of a new Republican presidency.
“What we’re talking about is not just a campaign platform,” said Ways and Means Committee member Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-Ohio). “Our task is more about how you can realistically move a tax bill in a more conservative direction that could actually pass the dynamics of the Senate.”
Ah, yes, they're going to show that they're Ready To Govern On Day One, and hope that no one outside the Republican base notices exactly
how they're ready to govern or what the outcome of their big plan would be. And speaking of the dynamics of the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is saying that tax reform
won't happen there in 2015. But hey, if he doesn't like Ryan's tax reform ideas, McConnell can always offer
another secret plan. That's always super convincing.
A key problem Republicans face with any new Paul Ryan plan is that voters know a little too much about the last Paul Ryan plan, and don't like what they know. Sure, this time it will include big promises of tax cuts (bigger for rich people than for you, but Republicans will have a talking point to obscure that), but you can confidently expect Democrats to remind voters—correctly!—that this is a plan coming from a guy whose end game is privatizing Medicare and Social Security.