House Speaker Paul Ryan just made his pitch to the country about tax reform. He wants it, and he wants it before the end of 2017 because, as he said in his prepared remarks, “we cannot let this once-in-a-generation moment slip by.” That’s all well and good, except that the main factor holding up tax reform is the speaker’s insistence that the United States adopt a distortive and unfair border adjustment tax to pay for the reform.
In the best of circumstances, fundamental tax reform is difficult, but now it seems even harder, thanks to Ryan’s refusal to move away from a proposed 20 percent tax on imports while giving a free ride to exporters. The whole point of fundamental reform is to cut taxes and grow the economy. Though the rest…