Time to act on tax reform

By Grover Norquist

USA Today

October 26, 2017

The damage our present IRS tax code does to American competitiveness in the world and job creation at home has been debated for years. Taxes eat up too much of our time and our families’ savings. They limit our dreams. Enough talk. It is time to fix the problems.

America taxes businesses at 35%. China at 25%.

Even President Obama saw this and admitted we should do something about it. Now the Republican plan is taking action to reduce our self-inflicted damage, cutting the rate from 35% down to 20%.

Every part of the tax reform package now being inked in has been part of the debate for 20 or 30 years. Or more.

The Republican tax cut increases the standard deduction from $12,000 for a married couple to $24,000. Soon, 95% of Americans will not need to itemize. Most Americans will be able to do their tax returns on a single sheet of paper.

The Republican plan cuts marginal tax rates for all Americans and ends the death tax imposed to pay for the Civil War and reimposed to fund World War I. Uncle Sam is a tad slow here; 33 states have already abolished their death taxes. So has Sweden.

Moving towards full and immediate business expensing was part of tax cuts initiated by Presidents Kennedy and Reagan. Obama allowed expensing for some business investment. Now we will expand this tested job creator to all American businesses.

The plan also reduces taxes on 30 million small businesses that are often treated worse than large corporations by our present tax code.

The Republican tax plan abolishes the alternative minimum tax, which forces millions of American to prepare two sets of tax returns and then choose the one worse for them.

Politicians have talked for decades about how the tax code kills jobs and lowers wages.

Those who want to avoid reform can continue to make excuses. Those who want to bring jobs backs to America and create new jobs and higher wages will be voting “yes.”

Pro-growth tax reform is too important for any Republican to lose focus, or be distracted by shiny objects and errant tweets.