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Article snippet: When David French was driving home from the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July 2016, he took a phone call with members of his team at the National Retail Federation (NRF). The topic: Whether to do an economic analysis of Speaker MORE’s (R-Wis.) tax blueprint, which contained a proposal, known as “border adjustment,” to tax imports and exempt exports. “We had concerns right away about the blueprint,” said French, senior vice president of government relations for NRF. “It was a radical transformation of the tax code, and it was a consumption tax.” The NRF officials ultimately decided to push forward with commissioning the analysis, even though they thought at the time that Donald Trump wouldn’t be elected president and the Ryan blueprint would go nowhere. So when Trump won the election, the retail sector was able to mobilize quickly against the proposal. The analysis, which found that the blueprint could be challenging for the retail community, wasn’t completed until after the election. But the retailers were ready for the battle. “We laid the groundwork to push back,” French said. This is part six of a seven-part series on how MORE's tax law passed Congress and how it is playing out in the battle for Congress in the 2018 midterm elections. (Part One: Breaking the gridlock) Opponents mobilize Border adjustability wasn’t a brand-new concept in the tax world — it was floated as an option by a tax-reform panel advising President George W. Bush in 20... Link to the full article to read more