House Speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday that he and President Donald Trump "totally agree" that tax reform is critical for restoring the United States' economy.
"We tax our businesses and our products a whole lot more than our foreign competitors tax theirs," Ryan told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program.
"We have got to radically simplify this tax code and make it easier and simpler for families. We have got to get our taxes and our businesses down so they can compete and hire. We think this is one of the most important things we can do to create jobs and economic growth."
Ryan said tax reform will be passed in the House the same way the American Health Care Act was: by listening and talking to members and getting everybody's feedback.
"We all agree, especially as Republicans, [we need to] simplify the tax code, get our tax code down and get faster economic growth to make it easier for American businesses to stay in America to be American businesses and make things in America," the speaker said.
The United States' corporate taxes have always been high, Ryan commented, but "the rest of the world lowered tax rates to be competitive, and we never did. The last time we did this was 1984."
In addition, families are hurting from the nation's current tax code, said Ryan, and so are businesses that pay taxes as individuals.
"Twenty percent of of American businesses are corporations," said Ryan. "Eighty percent of American businesses pay their taxes as individuals. We call them subchapter S corporations. Almost all the jobs come from small businesses and almost all small businesses pay their taxes as individuals. We are going to get those tax rates down, too."
Reforming the tax code will also allow businesses such as Apple to repatriate, rather than keeping billions of dollars out of the United States, said Ryan.
"Right now what the tax code says, if you make money overseas, keep that money overseas, invest overseas," the speaker said.
"Build factories overseas. We don't want to do that. Let people bring their money back home and companies bring it back home and reinvest it in this country, That is a critical piece of tax reform which we know will create jobs."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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