Vice President Mike Pence has made his tax pitch to retailers, and it's making headlines not for what he said, but what he left out, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
The presentation this week made no mention of the controversial border adjustment tax, which was a major part of the blueprint congressional republicans released last year. George Kelemen, who heads the Texas Retailers Association, was at the meeting, and says it seems their lobbying efforts have made an impact.
"That goes for all the members of Congress who have been public opposed to it as well as some of the cold water that seems to be thrown on it by members of the administration as well," he tells Newsradio 1200 WOAI.
The tax was immediately lampooned by business groups when it was presented by Congressman Kevin Brady (R-TX), who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee.
The proposed tax on imports was aimed at preventing U.S. companies from moving operations overseas.
"Whether border adjustment stays in or not, in some form, the problem has to be solved," Congressman Brady told reporters earlier this month. "Even with low rates, even with a territorial system, U.S. jobs and companies continue to leave, and there won’t be the incentives to bring those supply chains, or the research facilities or those patents back to the United States."
But a study done by the National Retail Federation found that the BAT would equate to a $1,700 impact on the average family, thanks to higher prices for things like gas, food and clothing. Kelemen says Texans would be disproportionally hit, simply because of the volume of trade done with Mexico.
"It's a global marketplace, and to slap essentially what amounts to a 20-percent tax on a certain segment of the economy, in this case retailers, that will then be passed on to consumers as a way to go about tax reform is not the way to go about it."