Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

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Joint Economic Committee Chairman Pat Tiberi (R-OH) today delivered the following statement on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives during consideration of H.Con.Res. 71, the fiscal year 2018 budget resolution:

“Mr. Speaker, we’re making a choice today about the kind of future we want.

“We can choose a future of more deficits and more debt.

“We can continue having a weak economy where people in their prime working years keep leaving the job market.

“We can choose a future where America’s job creators decide they’ll be better off starting or moving their business overseas.

“And if we choose this future of more of the same, it’s not the wealthy who will suffer.

“It’s the most vulnerable, low-income Americans trying to climb out of poverty. It’s the middle-class families who find it harder and harder to get ahead—people like my dad, a retired steelworker.

“And it’s our children and grandchildren, who will have to pay tomorrow for the mistakes we make today.

“But we can instead choose a better future where the government learns to live within its means and moves toward balanced budgets.

“A future where job-creating small businesses aren’t punished by the tax code when they succeed, where we stop losing jobs and businesses to foreign countries with lower tax rates, where workers can finally get the pay raises they deserve, and where prosperity is widespread and not concentrated in a handful of large cities.

“We will be voting soon on a budget that restores fiscal responsibility and paves the way for a world-class tax code built for growth—a better future.

“Yesterday the Joint Economic Committee held a hearing on the decline in business startups—the engines of job growth and innovation—and the role tax reform could play in reversing the downward spiral.

“Among other things, here’s what we heard:

“First, simplify the tax code. Entrepreneurs spend way too much time and money complying with the tax code instead of focusing on growing the business.

“Second, lower the tax rates our companies pay. That’s something foreign governments have already done to attract businesses.

“Third, let companies of all sizes write off the cost of their growth-producing investments immediately—called “expensing”—instead of deducting them slowly from taxes over many years under complicated depreciation rules.

“Fourth, stop punishing our companies for investing overseas profits back in America. Move away from our worldwide system of taxation to the territorial system of nearly all other countries.

“These steps will boost economic growth. Growing markets will give entrepreneurs the confidence to risk starting a business. More startups create more jobs—an average of six new jobs per startup—and more economic growth. The cycle continues and spreads prosperity.

“I’m happy to report that these recommendations are a large part of our tax reform framework: simplicity, lower tax rates, expensing, a territorial tax system that rewards investment in America, and boosting economic growth.

“We need a tax code that makes America the best place in the world to start, keep, and grow a business.

“Our job creators who are corporate taxpayers now face the highest rate in the developed world. While other countries aggressively lowered their tax rates to attract new business, we got left behind by standing still.

“The tax reform framework would slash our corporate rate from 35 percent to 20 percent, making our rate one of the most competitive instead of the worst. In a global economy, that’s not a luxury; it’s a necessity.

“Most of our competitors with lower rates also have territorial tax systems. But our companies are taxed once when they do business in other countries and again when they bring the profits back home to invest in America.

“Here’s the message our tax code sends: Leave those funds overseas, expand overseas and not here, because we’re going to impose the highest tax rate in the developed world if you bring it back to create jobs in America.

“Our tax reform framework will not only help American companies compete with foreign ones, but also bring capital back to invest and grow jobs here in America.

“And let’s look at how the tax code is punishing our small businesses who pay individual taxes as pass-throughs, not just with complex taxes but also high tax rates.

“When Main Street business owners went to sleep on December 31, 2012, their highest tax rate was 35 percent. When they woke up, their top rate spiked to 44.6 percent due to Obama Administration policies.

“Now, many on the other side of the aisle will say that most small businesses don’t pay this top rate. But taxpayers who do pay that rate are responsible for much of the economic activity and employment by pass-through businesses.

“Every small business owner dreams of being successful, and a high top rate punishes the very success we want them to achieve. Adding in state taxes, many small business owners face losing over half of each additional dollar to income taxes alone.

“The tax reform framework not only slashes rates for American corporations but our small businesses as well, with a top rate on pass-throughs of just 25 percent.

“Another feature of the tax reform framework would allow businesses of all sizes to deduct their business investments immediately through expensing.

“This would encourage companies to make the kind of investments—like buying state-of-the-art equipment—that lead to business growth, more jobs, higher economic growth, and larger paychecks for workers.

“Mr. Speaker, we have a choice to make. We could turn our backs on the most vulnerable Americans and doom them to more of the same: sub-par growth, more debt, less opportunity, and a complex, outdated tax code that punishes job creation and investment in America.

“I hope we choose a better future, and the first step is voting for this budget.”