Today, the Ways and Means Committee continued its work to advance H.R. 1 – the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Today’s action reinforced that this bold legislation will end the slow-growth status quo and unleash the growth of jobs and paychecks throughout our country:
Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX):
“For so long we’ve watched, not just our good-paying jobs, but our research, our manufacturing, and our headquarters move overseas. And for too long, we’ve tried to treat the symptoms of that; but the problem is our Tax Code. No matter what we do … the only thing that seems to stay is this broken Tax Code. …
“We believe at the end of the day the status quo will not work for American companies to compete. We’ve laid out, we think, strong provisions that allow America to compete; and for those reasons, the status quo cannot continue.
Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL), Chairman of the Tax Policy Subcommittee:
“Everybody under this proposal benefits. … The most favored in our society are benefitting under the status quo.”
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA):
“I think we all can say that the current tax code just doesn’t work. So, if the left wants to put up a tax bill that’s going increase taxes … that’s fine. … It’ll be up to the American people to decide: do they want to move our tax system into the 21st century or do we want to stay on the tax system of old, that clearly isn’t working by evidence of the jobs that are leaving this country.”
Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA):
“We all agree that the status quo is not acceptable, we want to see things change. … It’s not foreign competition that hurts us, it’s our own government that hurts us. We tax them too high, we regulate them too much, and then we criticize them when they say ‘I got to go offshore to survive,’ not to thrive but to survive. This piece of legislation brings jobs back here.”
Rep. Pat Meehan (R-PA):
“Let’s just look at the facts of the status quo, which is being defended largely by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle before we came to address this. Beginning in 2008 … eight years of the slowest recovery in modern American history, 2% growth. … It was the slowest economic recovery since World War II. The United States lost nearly 300,000 jobs in manufacturing … and the share of Americans in the workforce plummeted to the lowest since the 70’s.”
Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-MN):
“If we’re going to suffer with 2% growth, if that’s the new normal and we’re going to accept that, then young people getting out of college aren’t going to be able to pay their student loans, they’re not going to have more job opportunities. Older people who are retiring, as baby boomers retire, are going to be at risk without a competitive, growing economy. The Tax Code has not kept pace with the modern economy, this is our chance to move in a different direction.”
Rep. Adrian Smith (R-NE):
“The share of Americans participating in the workforce is near a four-decade low. … The status quo is clearly not working. … I believe that our plan would be more effective than the continuation of the status quo. How much more evidence do we need that the continuation of the status quo is not working?”
Tom Barthold, Chief of Staff for the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, explained that our bill will disrupt the status quo and pave the way for the creation of more jobs here at home:
“A 20% rate, a lower rate, for profits that are earned in the United States, on investments in the United States, should encourage investment in the United States relative to what would occur under baseline law.”
“The increased capital cost recovery … the 100% expensing of tangible investments. That means that if you build a plant in the United States, you get immediately improved cash flow and higher returns. …That should be an incentive to locate investments in the United States and jobs are complimentary to factory investment.”
The Ways and Means Committee will continue to mark up the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act tomorrow, beginning at 9:00 AM ET.