WASHINGTON, D.C.— House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo this morning to discuss how the House’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will give the average American family a $1,182 tax cut and make American businesses competitive again so they can bring jobs back home and grow our economy.
On how the House’s tax reform bill will be historic:
“Well if you look at this bill it’s probably one of the most historic tax cuts ever. And, you know, you look at our tax code, it’s so complicated, so outdated, it’s been since Ronald Reagan was president that we had this kind of tax cut plan, and this is really going to benefit the middle-class and it’s going to allow us to bring jobs back to America to make America competitive again. So, there’s a lot of good things for everybody in this bill. Most importantly, if you want to get the economy going again, nothing we can do quicker than to pass this Tax Cuts and Jobs [Act].”
On how American families and workers will see a tax cut under this bill:
“First of all Maria, the highest rate in our bill, and current law, is 39.6%. Nobody is increasing that. I think what some people are looking at is how quickly people are moving to the lower brackets. For most families, the first $90,000 of your income will be taxed at the lowest rate. That’s going to be a historic tax cut for the middle class, plus we double the standard deduction from $12,000 up to $24,000: big benefit to working families. When you are looking at the higher income workers, it’s not until the 25% rate that they start seeing that tax cut, so they’re going to get a tax cut. There’s not a 45% plus rate. What we’re also doing–again eliminating the alternative minimum tax, that helps a lot of families. But, we’re cutting corporate rates. If you look at the corporate rate going down to 20% in our bill, that’s going to benefit the economy, it’s going to benefit all these companies that have moved overseas, to move jobs overseas–they’re going to be able to come back. We repeal and phase out the death tax, Maria. Complete repeal of the death tax in this bill. That’s going to benefit a lot of those families you’re talking about in those higher income brackets, as well as the small businesses, the family farms, that’s going to save–I mean, one of the most egregious taxes in our code is the death tax and we get rid of it in our bill.”
On the false claim of the creation of higher tax brackets:
“I think they are looking at that one bracket from 1.2 million to 1.6 million, but again, the highest rate in our bill is 39.6%, which is current law. There are more people who will be able to take advantage of lower rates even when you are a high-income earner. If you look at that, they even made some comparisons to Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts. Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts did the same thing, and again it lowered rates for everybody. They had a higher rate than ours, but ultimately we lower rates for everybody. Again, when you talk about lowering the corporate rate to 20%, getting rid of the death tax, getting rid of the alternative minimum tax, that benefits everybody. [It] definitely benefits middle-class families [and] blue-collar workers more than anyone else, but it helps jumpstart the economy.”
On the economic growth this bill will generate:
“We have been struggling at less than 2% growth under Barack Obama. Since President Trump came in, and it has actually gone up because President Trump has done a great job at rolling back some of these radical regulations. But if you talk about real economic growth—and I’m not talking about 3%–I’m talking about being able to approach 4% economic growth and more. That’s achievable under President Trump and his leadership, and he’s working with us [to] get these tax cuts put into place immediately.”
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