Conservative Split Over Import Tax Imperils Trump’s Reform Goal -
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and ALAN RAPPEPORTAPRIL 1, 2017
One conservative group produced colorful flow charts warning millennials
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.
For Mr. Ryan, who holds more conventional free-trade views than Mr. Trump, the new tax provides a way to satisfy
Mr. Trump’s protectionist impulses without imposing punitive, and potentially even more disruptive, tariffs.
Both the Club for Growth and the Koch network also played a critical role in killing a proposal backed by Mr. Ryan
and Mr. Trump to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
