WASHINGTON, D.C.— House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends this morning to discuss the House’s intention to vote to go to conference committee with the Senate, following their passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, so the bill can be sent to President Trump’s desk by Christmas.
Click here or on the image above to see his full interview.
On the objectives for the bill headed into conference committee:
“The biggest things are to lower tax rates for families, to make our country competitive again, and look, I don’t think anybody could overstate how important it is that when we cut the corporate rate—right now we have the highest corporate rate in the industrialized world—and it’s killing jobs. We see thousands of jobs move overseas every year with big companies moving to Ireland, Canada. We’re going to finally stop that and reverse that trend and bring those jobs back home to America. So, if you look at the House and Senate bill, both of us are pretty close on that. There are some areas where we disagree. I would like to see a full repeal of the death tax; that’s something that really hurts small businesses. It’s probably the most unfair tax in the code. Streamlining and simplifying the code is so important, and in our bill over 90% of Americans will actually be able to do their taxes on a postcard. So when you look at the differences, they’re not that big, but there are some key significant differences that the House and Senate need to work out. We’re going to vote Monday to go to conference committee. I’m glad the Senate passed a bill. Now let’s get the differences worked out and get that on President Trump’s desk by Christmas.”
On simplifying the tax code and doubling the standard deduction:
“One thing you’ve got to keep in mind, in our bill we actually double the standard deduction. So right now it’s at $12,000 for a family. We go up to $24,000 for a family; that’s going to cover a lot of people’s medical expenses. Again, we’re going to look at all these other differences in conference, but doubling the standard deduction—and we have a family tax credit in addition to other things—we reinstated the adoption tax credit. A lot of those things are going to help middle-class families who have been struggling, who haven’t seen wage growth in a long time. Not only under our bill is the average family going to get [nearly] $1,200 a year back in their pockets from tax cuts, they are also going to see wage growth—estimates are about $2,500 a family in wage growth-that we’re going to see just by getting the economy moving.”
On repealing the individual mandate:
“I think that’s going to be a real important point of discussion. I surely would like to see not only the individual mandate repealed, but we need to continue moving and repeal and replace Obamacare like we’ve passed in the House. President Trump has been really supportive of this because he sees how families are struggling under dramatically increased cost for health care because of Obamacare, and the fewer choices that people have. In fact, in many states, you’re seeing where nobody is going to provide insurance under Obamacare. Companies won’t even write policies, so we need to continue working on that.”
On passing the bill by Christmas:
“We’re going to get this for Christmas. Look, it’s been a lump of coal for eight years under Obama. We finally have a great president in President Trump who wants to get the economy moving again, and wants to provide real relief for middle-class families who are struggling. This bill delivers. It will be a great Christmas present and you’re going to see this economy take off next year. It’ll be the best New Year’s resolution we can have.”
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