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#TBT: Roskam Discusses Pro-Growth Tax Reform at The Heritage Foundation

February 09, 2017

Earlier this week, Tax Policy Subcommittee Chairman Peter Roskam (R-IL) spoke at The Heritage Foundation about why the time is now to pass bold, pro-growth tax reform. Read excerpts from his remarks below.

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Our tax code is not working for us anymore. Our tax code was created in 1986, and we’ve got an opportunity now to look back on that …
Let’s recognize the nature of the debate right now. Let’s reflect on it and let’s look at it as an opportunity. So go back to 1986. Just to put this into context about how long ago 1986 was: the Bears won the Super Bowl, Ferris Bueller was out.” 

“We are at a national inflection point as it relates to tax reform … I think that there’s 3 key things that are driving this:      

“First is, there’s nobody that is defending the status quo. Nobody. There is no voice, no person, no entity out there today that’s saying, ‘You know what? The U.S. tax code is great, just leave it alone.’ Nobody. Now there’s people obviously that like some elements of the tax code, clearly, but nobody in its entirety is communicating that they like it the way it is. What are some of things they don’t like about it? They don’t like the complexity.

“The second reason that I think we’re at a national inflection point is the fact that the shine is completely off the penny of the Internal Revenue Service. I mean completely off the penny. Not just competency issues, but the malevolence of the targeting. And then the things that were happening with civil asset forfeiture, in particular.  

“The third reason I think we’re at a national inflection point is these inversions are going to be continuing to happen. The base erosion of the US economy is really, really significant.” 

“And so now here we come and we’ve got a blueprint. And I would argue that we have essentially a collapsing window of opportunity right now to get this done … The status quo is simply unsustainable.”

CLICK HERE to learn more about House Republicans’ Tax Reform Blueprint.

CLICK HERE to learn more about how House Republicans are ending the “Made in America” Tax.