A day after a powerful U.S. House committee chairman unveiled what may be the most comprehensive tax reform bill since 1986, lawmakers in both parties in Congress gave the plan a collective shrug, as it created next to no momentum for action on tax reform among either Democrats or Republicans in the House and Senate.
"We're going to continue to have conversations with our members about tax reform," said Speaker John Boehner, who for a second straight day would only say that the plan from Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) was starting a worthwhile discussion of tax reform.
On the House floor, not one Republican lawmaker spoke about Camp's tax plan.
Not even Camp showed up to make the case for his own bill.
And not one Democrat spoke about the tax plan, either.
Across the Capitol, the story was the same on the Senate floor, as tax reform didn't get a mention all through Thursday's session.
In other words - you would have thought this 979 page bill with hundreds of pages of legislative background had been introduced by some super-junior lawmaker whom no one had heard of - it was almost like it never happened.
Out in the Speaker's Lobby just off the House floor, the questions for Republicans on Thursday were mainly about health care, defense spending, farm policy and more.
"It's a major piece of legislation," said Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), who even though he said he was pleased with Camp's effort, Price made clear to me that he was not expecting action anytime soon on tax reform in the Congress.
"It's a draft that gets people thinking about how we reform the tax code," said Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-FL), who backs the FairTax, which would replace the income tax with a national sales tax. That plan has over 70 co-sponsors in the U.S. House.
In a news conference with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, the Camp plan merited only a quick mention, as she focused on legislation dealing with the minimum wage and extended long term jobless benefits.
In my email inbox, the subject was notably absent; no statements from lawmakers on the day after about the details of the plan, just a few releases from Camp's office, talking it up, along with some outside tax and budget groups weighing in with their initial reviews.
It was almost as if the guy in one of the most powerful positions in the Congress, the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, was proposing major legislation out on some island - by himself.
In the Press Gallery, a few of us did some checking, and think that Camp's plan may well be the first comprehensive tax reform bill unveiled since 1985, when Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski (D-IL) got things going on tax reform legislation.
"Mr. Camp’s proposal is a serious approach to a serious problem," the lead editorial in the Washington Post opined.
And yet, many in Congress were giving it a very wide berth.
It wasn't like 1985, when President Reagan spoke on national television to endorse the idea of tax reform, followed by Rostenkowski, who urged voters to "Write Rosty" with ideas about possible tax changes.
"Just address it to R-O-S-T-Y, Washington, D.C.," the Chairman from Chicago said, which spurred thousands of letters.
Back then, both parties were ready to act on tax reform.
This time, it looks like both parties are ready to wait, until after the next election - and maybe longer.
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