We begin the session with the latest news:

White House not ripping up NAFTA – Yet

Obamacare replacement could happen Saturday

The day after, the Street is musing over the White House Tax plan but not ready to make investment decisions based on what is essentially an outline.

That being said, I like that the White House has taken control of the process and think the plan is a good negotiating starting point. 

The administration will be working hard to prove the plan is “deficit neutral.”

To that end, the plan has to be judged on so-called “dynamic” scoring, which takes into account the flow of money in the economy that would have otherwise been paid in taxes or held in reserve.

The Trump Administration is selling the plan hard, but most are avoiding hyperbolic comments, while acknowledging scoring will be the biggest hurdle.   On that note, very well-known and respected organization is saying the plan will pile on debt galore even with the most dynamic of dynamic scoring.   I think it’s a starting point, and gets the ball rolling faster, so we get a deal sooner.

Meanwhile, Gary Cohn talking points will resonate with regular folks looking to make middle class incomes stretch further.

In 1935, we had a one-page tax form consisting of 34 lines and two pages of instructions.  Today, the basic 1040 form has 79 lines and 211 pages of instructions. Instead of a single tax form, the IRS now has 199 tax forms on the individual side of the tax code alone. Taxpayers spend nearly 7 billion hours complying with the tax code each year, and nearly 90% of taxpayers need help filing their taxes.

We are going to cut taxes and simplify the tax code by taking the current 7 tax brackets we have today and reducing them to only three brackets: 10 percent, 25 percent, and 35 percent.

We are going to double the standard deduction so that a married couple won’t pay any taxes on the first $24,000 of income they earn.  So in essence, we are creating a 0 percent tax rate for the first $24,000 that a couple earns.

Gary Cohn is the chief economic advisor to President Donald J. Trump and Director of the National Economic Council

The market is looking to open slightly higher, mostly on more strong earnings news, but I’m worried about crude oil now beginning to breakdown on a technical basis.  CP