The Washington Update

President Joe Biden is proposing to eliminate “stepped-up basis” on property transferred at death.

A majority of the Senate (including two Democrats) has agreed to forego efforts to eliminate the filibuster during the Congressional term ending December 2022.

As the party conventions conclude and the general election campaign begins, the national polls lean toward Democrat Joe Biden. But presidents are determined by the Electoral College, not by popular vote.

If the virus in fact becomes a national crisis, it might have a bearing on how a segment of voters decides whether to support the President in any of three ways...

For almost 1-1/2 years, President Trump’s tariff initiative has confused and roiled the markets. The following discussion examines why markets have been volatile and makes some predictions about future market reactions.

Our last tax update, Tax Reform Aftermath: New Guidance for Investors, discussed in part the steps small business owners might take to claim and maximize the 20% deduction afforded by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Since we wrote that paper, the IRS has clarified the application of the provisions that govern these strategies.

Since the beginning of 2018, the government funding imbroglio has consumed Washington. With a second government shutdown looming, the two parties finally compromised on legislation funding the government through September, an eon away by congressional standards.

The new year begins as the prior year ended – with the federal government shut down and no compromise in sight. Of course, the government will reopen at some point, likely when the average American gets tired of dealing with the lack of government services.

The 2018 Midterms are over, and the messages are mixed. As we predicted, the Republicans held the Senate, while Democrats took the House by a lesser margin than some others expected.

The different and constantly changing polls make it difficult at this point to reach a definitive conclusion regarding the midterm election results. Moreover, future events – particularly those occurring in late October and November – almost certainly will have an outsized influence on the outcome.

Last week, the SEC issued proposed rules governing broker-dealer and investment advisor conduct. The rules serve as a counterpoint to the fiduciary rules issued by the Department of Labor.

In our first written update of the Trump presidency, in January 2017, we sounded a theme about the interaction of President Trump’s policies and the markets that we continue to espouse through our presentations today.

In our white paper, Tax Reform Near the Finish Line: What’s in the Bill, we summarize the portions of the Tax Cuts & Jobs bill of particular interest to investors, as well as the likely winners and losers under that legislation.

Three new health care reform initiatives - from the political right, left, and center - are developing in the Senate. Earlier this week I joined CNBC's Nightly Business Report to discuss the proposal up first for consideration: the Graham-Cassidy bill, which would turn the ACA into a system of state grants.

In our update last month, we noted that the federal government could shut down on April 29 for lack of Congressional funding, a development that might have market consequences.