Time and time again, politicians have promised federal tax reform and tax relief to American citizens, only to break those promises and leave American families and business owners shouldering tremendous burdens of taxation at the federal, state and local levels around the country.
I am proud that Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the Arkansas Legislature recently passed the largest income-tax cut in Arkansas history, providing much-needed relief to our citizens. The time is now for President Trump and the United States Congress to work together and extend relief to all hardworking families around the country by passing the GOP tax reform bill, which includes the recent amendment by Sen. Tom Cotton to finally end the Obamacare individual mandate.
I join Governor Hutchinson in support of the GOP tax reform legislation and believe the following policy points from the reform package are needed to create jobs, help families keep more money in their own pockets and allow reinvestment into small businesses which are the backbone of our economy.
Make It Easy
• We need a tax code that is simple and easy to understand. The average taxpayer has to wade through 241 pages of instructions to file a basic tax form. A staggering 94 percent of families use professional help to do their taxes. Taxpayers spend 6 billion hours each year complying with the tax code.
• Under the GOP plan, 95 percent of Americans will be able to file their tax return on a single page without having to keep receipts, fill out schedules, or track endless paperwork.
• The GOP plan will give hardworking Americans their time and money back.
Make It Fair
• The GOP plan is going to end the rigged system that has only benefited the wealthy and well-connected. It will restore fairness by streamlining the tax code and ending special-interest tax breaks and loopholes.
• It is time to give American workers a pay raise. The GOP plan will reduce taxes for our middle class and allow them to keep more of their own hard-earned money.
Win Again
• Our business tax rate is the highest in the developed world--we are dead last. Our rate is 15 percentage points higher than the average in developed nations.
• The GOP plan will provide tax relief to businesses of all sizes.
• The GOP plan will dramatically reduce the tax rate for America's small businesses, which have created more than 60 percent of new private-sector jobs in the recent past.
• We can give our workers the level playing field they deserve--and they will win, because if the fight is fair, no one on earth can beat the American worker.
Bring It Home
• Our high tax rate punishes companies for doing business in America and encourages them to move to other countries--it is time to bring them home. This "offshoring model" has been disastrous for American workers and families. Our "American model" will reduce the burdens on American companies and encourage them to do business in our country.
President Donald J. Trump wants our companies to hire and grow in America, to raise wages for American workers, and to help rebuild our American communities. This is how we all succeed and grow together.
• Our tax system penalizes companies that bring wealth they have earned overseas back to America. As a result, corporations have parked trillions of dollars in foreign countries--money that could, and should, be brought back inside the United States to be invested in American companies, American jobs and American workers. The GOP plan will encourage these companies to bring these funds back to American cities and towns.
Every year of my life, the national debt has continued to increase and now has grown to an astronomic level of $20.5 trillion. If America keeps using the exact same system of taxation that we have used that has fostered the unsustainable national debt and economic malaise of the failed democrat welfare state, we will keep getting the same result.
It is time for the Republican leadership in Congress to ensure we pass tax reform and rid the nation of the Obamacare individual mandate.
Please contact your U.S. senators and representatives today and let them know that you support President Trump and the tax reform bill. Arkansas families deserve federal tax relief.
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State Sen. Jason Rapert, a member of the Senate Tax and Revenue Committee, represents District 35.
Editorial on 11/20/2017