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Overshadowed by the GOP revolt over the House-crafted American Health Care Act, the Senate Republican caucus has begun to distance itself from the House GOP tax reform bill as well. Last week, <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/finance/323502-senate-republicans-eyeing-alternative-tax-reform-plan">The Hill reported</a>:

Senate Republicans are exploring alternatives to Speaker <span class="rollover-people"><a class="rollover-people-link" href="http://thehill.com/people/paul-ryan">Paul Ryan</a></span>‘s (R-Wis.) tax reform package, which hinges on a border adjustment tax proposal that is deeply unpopular in the upper chamber.

Finance Committee Chairman Sen. <span class="rollover-people"><a class="rollover-people-link" href="http://thehill.com/people/orrin-hatch">Orrin Hatch</a></span> (R-Utah) says he won’t proceed until the House bill hits a dead end, but senators are laying the groundwork for a new direction, expecting the House plan will either fail or require substantial revisions.

Specifically, Senate Republicans who have spoken on the issue overwhelmingly oppose the border adjustment tax, which House Speaker Paul Ryan came up with as a means of plugging the revenue hole opened by the rest of the House plan. <a href="http://www.flake.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=5CBE4847-E879-40FF-A6FE-77D5FCF29D8B">Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.)</a>, for example, decried the idea on the Senate floor last week:

From the aisles at big box stores to the check-out lines in grocery stores, household staples could be pushed out of reach for those who can least afford it.

In addition, there are concerns that this new policy could disrupt global supply chains and make it harder for our country’s largest private sector employers to grow and do business. . . .

Looking inward, we simply do not produce everything we need here in the United States. That’s why we trade with other countries in the first place.

And for the things that we do make here, those products often require inputs from all over the world.

In fact, whether it’s raw material or specialty parts, roughly 50 percent of our nation’s imports consist of inputs for U.S. production and manufacturing.

Flake correctly concludes that all we would be doing is making our own production less efficient and damaging our competitiveness.

But let’s take a step back. Why did the BAT even come up? The House tax bill that has been floating around in one form or another tries to lower the tax rates for everyone and reform the corporate tax code. The latter can actually be done on a revenue-neutral basis, but the individual tax cuts the House envisions result in mammoth revenue losses. (According to the <a href="https://taxfoundation.org/details-and-analysis-2016-house-republican-tax-reform-plan/">Tax Foundation analysis</a>: “The plan would reduce federal revenue by $2.4 trillion over the first decade on a static basis. However, due to the larger economy and the broader tax base, the plan would reduce revenue by $191 billion over the first decade.”) The BAT is only needed because the individual tax plan hemorrhages so much revenue.

Rather than find a new fix for an individual tax reform plan that loses gobs of money, why not fix the underlying plan? There are lots of alternatives to a recycled 1980’s-style tax plan that cuts top marginal rates, giving a huge break to the wealthy and opening up the floodgates of red ink. There are at least four we can think of:

First, leave the individual tax code alone. The economy is growing and creating jobs already. Work on the corporate side to lower rates, eliminate loopholes and encourage repatriation of profits currently kept off shore. There is plenty of bipartisan support for that, which can be done on a revenue-neutral basis.

Second, leave the top marginal rate where it is for the wealthiest Americans and give some modest economic relief to everyone else. The current plan loses so much money because of the <a href="https://taxfoundation.org/details-and-analysis-2016-house-republican-tax-reform-plan/">disproportionate benefit to the rich</a>:

On a static basis, the House Republican tax plan would increase the after-tax incomes of taxpayers in every income group. The bottom 80 percent of taxpayers (those in the bottom four quintiles) would see a small increase in after-tax income between 0.2 percent and 0.5 percent. Taxpayers in the top 10 percent would see a 1 percent increase in after-tax income. Taxpayers in the top 1 percent would see the largest increase in after-tax income on a static basis of 5.3 percent, driven by both the lower top marginal tax rate and the lower corporate income tax.

Third, look at other ways of providing some middle-class relief (e.g., a reduction in the payroll tax) and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-plan-b-for-the-gop-raise-warren-buffetts-taxes-1488995006">shifting the tax burden from corporations to the richest individuals </a>(“[C]ut the corporate rate to 15%, and pay for it by taxing dividends and capital gains at the same rate as ordinary individual income. For the richest households, that is currently 39.6%, whereas dividends and capital gains are currently taxed at up to 23.8%. This helps rectify many flaws in the current tax code: the double-taxation of corporate profits, the bias for companies to issue debt rather than equity and widespread special breaks that distort the allocation of capital.”) A tax on corporations is actually a tax on wages so lowering corporate taxes would help boost wages. These are both ideas in keeping with President Trump’s populist rhetoric.

Fourth, don’t increase individuals’ health-care expenses by substituting a skimpy tax credit for a generous tax subsidy. Yes, the GOP tax plan is not exactly a tax on the lower and middle class but it sure does increase health-care costs and thereby decrease the amount they have to spend on other items. And if you didn’t pass the ACHA, individuals at the high end wouldn’t be getting a $600 billion (or so) tax break. That would prevent the loss of so much revenue, which makes tax reform so difficult. Sometimes doing no (further) harm is the best idea of all.

University of California at Berkeley, BA in history

University of California at Berkeley, JD

Jennifer Rubin writes reported opinion for The Washington Post. She is the author of “Resistance: How Women Saved Democracy from Donald Trump” and is host of the podcast Jen Rubin's "Green Room."

Jennifer Rubin

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The Washington Post Opinions section features opinion articles, op-eds, editorials by the Editorial Board, global opinions and letters to the editor on the issues of the day. Offerings include columns by Washington Post opinion writers, political cartoons by editorial cartoonists Ann Telnaes and Michael de Adder and podcasts by James Hohmann and Jonathan Capehart.