Sixth District Congressman Mark Walker and 13th District Congressman Ted Budd, who both represent parts of Greensboro, held a press conference on Tuesday, Oct. 10, to talk about the Republican tax reform plan, and how tax reform plans, if done properly, will pay for themselves without spending cuts, as was done by the Republican-led General Assembly in North Carolina.
The press conference was at the Piedmont Triad International Airport and North Carolina Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, state Sen. Rick Gunn from Alamance County and state House majority whip Rep. Jon Hardister all spoke.
Walker and Budd talked about the proposed tax reform plan that would lower the tax burden on corporations and individuals.
The standard deduction will be doubled to $12,000 for an individual and $24,000 for a couple, which will mean a lot of folks who are paying taxes today won’t pay anything; and more taxpayers will not have to itemize their deductions, making filing a whole lot easier.
They also talked about cutting the corporate tax rate almost in half, to 20 percent, which will allow corporations to keep and spend more of their own money, encouraging business expansion and helping to stop the drain on the economy from businesses relocating overseas in countries that have lower corporate taxes.
Forest said that the Republicans came to Raleigh with a different philosophy – that the good people of North Carolina could spend their own money better than the state government. He noted that before the state tax reform, North Carolina was rated 44th in the nation for business climate, and it is now rated 11th.
He said that North Carolina now has the lowest corporate tax rate of any state that has corporate taxes, and the result of revising the tax code has been more revenue.
Gunn said, “Tax reform works.” He said that the return on investment, if the tax reform framework becomes law, will be good for the entire country.
Hardister noted that since North Carolina tax reform – which was much like what is being proposed for the federal government – the state has gone from double-digit unemployment to less than 5 percent, and the state budget surplus is now over $500 million. The state has also gone from being in debt to building up the Rainy Day Fund to over $1.8 billion.
Walker closed the press conference by saying that the Republicans believe the tax reform will, through increased economic activity, reduce the deficit, which is now over $20 trillion.
The point of the press conference was that similar tax cuts in North Carolina have provided more, not less, revenue, unlike what the Democrats predicted. And that the same type of tax reform on the national level will have the same kind of effect – with the federal government bringing in more revenue through lower taxes – something the Democrats in Washington, like the Democrats in Raleigh, say won’t happen.
