Senator Lee Proposes Interesting Ideas, But He Needs to Find Common Ground

Official portrait of United States Senator Mike Lee. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Senator Mike Lee‘s proposed legislation aimed at redefining the conservative movement is full of good ideas. However, as long as the legislation requires repeal of Obamacare–and until Congress is held by veto-proof majorities of Republicans–the bills could be dead on arrival. Lee needs a path that both finds common ground with opponents and moves his ideas forward.

This past Wednesday, Senator Mike Lee introduced the first of the several bills he referred to in his Heritage Foundation speech on Tuesday. Entitled the “Family Fairness and Opportunity Tax Reform Act,” Lee’s intent with the bill is to help middle class families–especially married couples with children–by simplifying the tax code and lowering the top tax rate while eliminating a “double standard” in the tax code, according to a press release from the Senator’s office.

Among other things, the law would:

Establish two individual income tax rates: 15% on all income up to $87,850 – and twice that amount for married couples – and 35% on all income above that;
Offsets the parent tax penalty by providing an additional $2,500-per child tax credit, available to all parents of dependent children and applicable to payroll taxes as well as income taxes;
A $2,000 personal credit to offset the removal of the 10% bracket and the personal exemption;
A new charitable deduction that would be available to all taxpayers, not just current itemizers;
A new mortgage interest deduction, also available to all home-owners, but capped at $300,000 worth of principal;

Notable to me is the addition of the tax credit per child, as well as the additions to the charitable deductions and the mortgage interest deduction. I’m a big fan of programs that support children and opposed to those that increase the weight on them (for example, state senator Pat Jones’ idea to eliminate state tax deductions for children to increase teacher pay).

However, the plan appears to include elimination of state and local tax deductions, which seems like would have the effect of accruing more policy power to the federal government rather than state government. The proposal could have an impact of creating revenues of 16 to 20 percent of GDP, which is great, until you figure out where those revenues are likely coming from–the repeal of Obamacare and the AMT.

Despite the laudability of the proposals, including other pieces of legislation Lee introduced this week, by including the repeal of Obamacare into the proposal Lee has likely rendered the Family Fairness and Opportunity Tax Reform Act dead on arrival. There just isn’t a path to repealing Obamacare at the moment, and with each passing month, repeal will become more difficult.

If Lee wants to see his proposals taken seriously by other law makers in Washington, his proposals need to at minimum restrain efforts to change Obamacare to piecemeal modification. In other words, reform the Affordable Care Act to fix elements of the law that are commonly held by both Republicans and Democrats to need revisions. While Democrats are as firm in support of the law as most Republicans are about hating it, there are elements of it that everyone agrees are problematic. Relying on the Obama Administration to fix by executive order what should be changed by legislative action, though, only cedes power that the Congress could retain by action on common ground issues.

Considering how the Senator positioned himself on immigration, this should be a reasonable approach. After leaving the bi-partisan group of eight on immigration reform, Lee repeatedly argued for discrete legislative action on various aspects of immigration reform as opposed to a comprehensive reform package preferred by others. As it regards Obamacare, Lee could make headway by proposing discreet changes that find common ground across the aisle and with the President.

As a tactic, it will also demonstrate Lee’s ability to propose solutions that can be passed, not just solutions that cater primarily to his base. By demonstrating that the can find common ground on hot button areas–or on the hot button of Obamacare–Lee will build up political capital for battles that are more dicey and difficult. Lee would demonstrate that he can compromise, find common ground, and pass pieces of his proposed solutions that redefine the conservative movement (as he spoke of in his Heritage Foundation speech on Tuesday).

It’s a path that is both pragmatic and principled. Lee doesn’t need to give up on changing Obamacare and he can move away from the developing reputation for obstinacy towards a more problem solving and solution proposing persona. Senator Lee is smart and he has good ideas–he just needs to be willing to find the a way to weave a path for his ideas that allows for meeting his opponents on both sides of the aisle on common ground.

Not only that, but it’ll shore up Lee’s reelection and limit his challengers’ critiques in 2016.