Conservative Split Over Import Tax Imperils Trump’s Overhaul<br />For Mr. Ryan, who holds more conventional free-trade views than Mr. Trump, the new tax provides a way to satisfy<br />Mr. Trump’s protectionist impulses without imposing punitive, and potentially even more disruptive, tariffs.<br />Both the Club for Growth and the Koch network also played a critical role in killing a proposal backed by Mr. Ryan<br />and Mr. Trump to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.<br />Mr. Trump’s Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and his top economic adviser, Gary<br />Cohn — both former Goldman Sachs bankers — are said to be leery of the border tax.<br />By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and ALAN RAPPEPORTAPRIL 1, 2017<br />One conservative group produced colorful flow charts warning millennials<br />that a "border adjustment" tax proposed by Speaker Paul D. Ryan would raise prices on "the Jose Cuervo tequila that’s in your happy hour margarita." Three days later, a second conservative group kicked off a lobbying campaign saying it would amount to a $1.2 trillion tax on seniors and the working poor.<br />Cotton said that Most conservatives I know have long believed that tax reform would look at all of the carve-outs in the tax code,<br />Groups like Americans for Tax Reform — headed by Grover Norquist, perhaps Washington’s most famous anti-tax crusader — have praised<br />the border tax proposal, saying it would put American businesses "on a level playing field" with foreign competitors.
