Tax reform is all the rage right now, just as it should be.  We have a complex web called the tax code that is nearly 75,000 pages long, including all the guidelines.  At 39.1%, our corporate tax rate – combining federal and state – is the highest in the industrialized world.  And our individual tax system is punitive and burdensome.  This structure cries out for change.

Yet while the House and Senate are working hard to move the ball on this critical issue, they may be on the verge of missing out on a once-in-a-generation opportunity for real change.  Tax reform must be about redesigning the tax code for the long haul, not just rearranging the deck chairs.  In this regard, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is a not yet good enough.

Much of what the House bill does is encouraging.  It reduces the number of brackets from seven to four and cuts the rates at most levels.  It doubles the standard deduction.  It immediately slices the tax rate for C-corporations from 35% to 20%.  It eliminates numerous deductions and loopholes on the individual and corporate sides.  And it guts the vicious death tax, albeit in 2024.

The final legislation ought to take further steps to clean up the tax code.  For example, it should eliminate the state and local property tax deduction, simplify the pass-through business code and expand opportunities for more small businesses to access lower tax rates, zero-out Obamacare’s punitive individual mandate, and eliminate or reduce the top individual rate.

But what is being cooked up in the Senate is not tax reform.  It’s too much like 2001 and 2003 – temporary fixes that expire soon without substantial, lasting change for everyday Americans.  While an end to the Obamacare individual mandate and the entire state and local tax deduction are welcome moves, the Senate bill is concerning in several ways.

It sets an expiration date that is all too soon: in just 8 years, after 2025, the bill terminates the individual tax rate cuts, restores the Alternative Minimum Tax and turns back the clock on important tax code cleanup, including all the deductions and loopholes they promise to get rid of on the individual side.  That’s all in the hopes that the 2025 Congress won’t let this tax recipe expire.

The Senate version keeps the mortgage interest deduction intact, institutes a new paid leave entitlement, and is a day late and a dollar short on the corporate tax rate cuts, waiting until 2019 to let those kick in.  Taken together, this doesn’t feel like true tax reform.  It is something else.

Make no mistake: what is being proposed in both chambers is superior to the status quo.  The permanent corporate tax rate cuts are especially welcome.  However, we are now presented with a real opportunity for sizable tax reform, the likes of which we haven’t seen since 1986.  If Republicans in Congress want to shoot for the moon and actually achieve pro-growth tax reform, let’s go all-in and do it.  If not, call it exclusively what it really is: tax rate cuts.

The Senate bill in its current form was passed out of the Finance Committee last Thursday.  This is a tremendous first step, but the process is not over.  Now is the time that senators outside the committee must stand and let their voices be heard on what hopefully will be meaningful change.

U.S. Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Susan Collins of Maine are among those speaking out.  Unlike the Obamacare repeal, there isn’t an urgent and tight deadline for tax reform.  Congress has some time.  Colorado’s own Senator Cory Gardner should heed this same call, study the bill closely and advocate for amendments that promote longstanding reform.

As Millennial policy analysts, our tax reform team at the Millennial Policy Center is closely examining what this means for our generation and, therefore, for the future of our country.  The House proposal needs revisions, but it is arguably a step to reform.  We hope that, as the Senate proceeds with its process, it will move steadily toward meaningful, lasting change with realized benefits.