January 21st
[b]Cannon House Office Building, Washington D.C.[/b]

Bridget had propped her bare feet up on the desk of her Washington office to idly listen to the President’s inaugural speech over the television. She twirled a pen between her fingers. Her late-day trance was broken by the President’s address to congress:

“...I am challenging Congress and my new administration to [b]pass a tax [/b]reform bill within the first one hundred days of this new Congress.” 

Bridget held the pen still and clicked it a couple of times against the surface of her desk, “…tax reform, huh?” 

She reached down, picked up her cellphone and sent out a message to all of her office staff: Tax reform, I want ideas on my desk within the week. Pay raise for whoever brings me the best solution.

She then leaned back in her chair and retreated into her daze for the rest of the inauguration before retreating to her White House suite and falling asleep next to a half-eaten plate of veal parmigiana.

[center]—[/center]

January 22nd
[b]Hay-Adams Hotel, Washington D.C.[/b]

She got an early start at twelve o’clock that day with a call from her aide, who after watching a recap of the Speaker’s interview on the Fox Nightly News with Nick O’ Neal, called her up proposing the speaker’s ideas for cutting corporate welfare, tax breaks, and anti-competitive subsidies. While lowering corporate taxes.

Bridget rubbed her eyes and yawned, “Yeah, alright…. how much do we spend on that corporate welfare?”

“Uh… hold on.” 

After a short period and one google search later, Neil speaks up again, “One-hundred and fifty billion.”

Bridget blows a raspberry into the phone, “Alright, let’s cut it. Those other subsidies too. Is Ashley at the office?”

“Yeah… she’s uh… right here. Hold on.”

“Go for West.”

“Hey Ash, what’s our projected revenue for next fiscal year?”

“Uh… three trillion.” 

“…and expenses [b]minus corporate welfare[/b] and [b]anti-competition subsides[/b] an~d… [b]veteran’s benefits[/b]?” 

“Three point one trillion.”

“Fuck… I need you to run some numbers.”

“Alright boss, what do you want to run?”

“I want you to mess with the income tax brackets until we’re in the green. Start from the top, no more than five-percent increase across the board.”

“Alright, hold up.”

“A long silence ensues as Ashley runs the numbers, “Alright, I rounded up the highest bracket to 40%, raised the next one to 36%, next to 35% and the next to 30%. That should put us in the green next year.”

“Alright, [b]minor income tax increases.[/b] I think we’ve cracked it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, put Neil and yourself down for a one-thousand pay increase each.”

“Sure thing, boss. Sounds good.”

“Put Yvette on the line.”

“Salut, Yvette here.”

“Hey, Yvette. I need you to draft a tax reform bill for the congress.”

“Oui, oui. What do you want?”

“[b]Cut corporate welfare, anti-competition subsidies, and non-wounded veterans benefits and increase income tax brackets to 10, 15, 25, 30, 35, 36 and 40 percent.[/b]”