HMM: On His 97th Day As President, Donald Trump Made Tax Reform Less Likely.

Make no mistake: Thorndike and other veteran tax watchers figure the Republican Congress will ultimately pass a tax cut of some size this year and call whatever they pass tax reform.

“They have to have a tax cut, right? There’s a Republican president and a Republican Congress,’’ says Leonard Burman, a Syracuse University professor and co-founder of the Tax Policy Center. “But I’m not optimistic it will be reform. It’s too bad, because there were a lot of interesting ideas that were bandied about, particularly on the Republican side.”

Reform is arguably even more important than rate cuts, given how Congress and the past three administrations have larded up the tax code with bewildering complexities.