Koch brothers seek to ‘jolt’ tax reform debate

The conservative political network of billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch on Thursday launched a multi-million dollar push to “jolt” the debate on tax reform.

“Now is the time,” network spokesman James Davis told The Associated Press. “We’ve got to unite around those principles. The White House hopefully will see this as a jolt to support them in driving this forward.”

Davis said the network’s campaign would run through the summer.

{mosads}The network’s leading organizations, Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Partners, on Thursday also released a set of general preferences for an overhaul of the tax code, which included lowering business tax rates, cutting taxes on investments and eliminating the estate tax, among other things.

Members of Trump’s economic team on Wednesday met with members of Congress to discuss the tax reform push, a top priority of the White House.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn met with Republicans and some Democrats on the issue during a flurry of meetings on Capitol Hill.

Cohn said that the White House and lawmakers had decided to do “both” tax cuts and tax reform following the sessions.

One topic discussed at the huddles was a border adjustment that would tax imports and exempt exports, an idea that is facing skepticism in the House.