More than three decades after Congress revamped the nation’s tax code, U.S. House Ways and Means Committee members last week said it is again time for new pro-growth tax reform to take place.
And the same guiding principles of the 1986 tax overhaul signed into law by former President Ronald Reagan — lower taxes, job creation, higher paychecks, international competitiveness, simplicity and fairness — remain imperative for reform this year, said members of the House Ways and Means Committee, which is the chief tax writing body for Congress.
“This was a tax code built for excellence because it was built to help all Americans realize their own American dream — whatever that might be,” said Committee Chairman Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), speaking Aug. 18 from Rancho del Cielo, President Reagan’s Santa Barbara, Calif., ranch.
One of the GOP’s top priorities, when members of Congress return from their August recess, is readying a tax reform bill that can pass the House and Senate. And the House Ways and Means Committee members appear ready to get to business working on a tax overhaul framework President Donald Trump released in July.
“Just like my constituents in Texas and so many Americans throughout the nation, I think President Reagan would be pretty disappointed in what our tax code has become today,” said Brady, who was joined at the ranch by Reps. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), Peter Roskam (R-IL) and David Schweikert (R-AZ).
For instance, fairness has been replaced by favoritism for special interest groups while American competitiveness has become a casualty of Washington’s inaction, Brady said.
And while America’s international competitors have made major strides toward improving their tax systems for businesses and workers, lawmakers in Washington have responded by “sitting on the sidelines and reverting back to bad old habits,” he added.
“Could you imagine the national disposition in the next months if we are able to cut this Gordian knot and get to fundamental tax reform that creates real growth, real opportunity, that translates into real jobs, more money in their paychecks for middle-class Americans,” said Tax Policy Subcommittee Chairman Roskam.
“I have a great deal of confidence in our capacity — joined by our friends all across the spectrum who are engaging substantively on this process — that we can get tax reform done and have real growth,” said Roskam.
Curbelo pointed out that the road ahead to getting tax reform done in 2017 won’t be easy. “But it wasn’t easy for Ronald Reagan either,” he said.
“It’s our turn to renew the confidence of the American worker, to show American families that they can succeed here and that this is the greatest place in the world to get a job, to start a company, to invent a new product,” said Curbelo. “That is what tax reform is all about.”
It’s also about prosperity and opportunity, he added, particularly for the country’s young people, who haven’t benefited from the economic recovery yet or haven’t gotten a job after graduating college.
Schweikert told the audience not to underestimate “simplicity” as a guiding principle of tax reform efforts.
“That simplicity is going to be a really powerful gift to the American people if we do our jobs,” Schweikert said.