Republican victories in last month’s election will pave the way for comprehensive tax reform, according to U.S. Representative Jackie Walorski.
She told a group of residents, business and community leaders in Winamac Tuesday that House Republicans are proposing a “complete reset” of the U.S. tax system. “It’s a fairer, flatter tax system completely, and it really brings the corporate rate down,” she said. “The proposal from the House side is the corporate rate is 20 percent. Trump’s proposal’s 15 percent. It means someplace in the middle is where that will settle. But it will bring us down for every job creator in this country, to actually have a fair and flat, finally, tax code to work with and not the most punitive in the world.”
For individuals, Walorski said the proposal would reduce the number of tax brackets to three: 10, 25, or 30 percent. It would also include an option to deduct mortgage interest and charitable contributions. “The reason those two are on here and the reason they’re so important to leave on here, especially from a Republican House perspective, is because the issue of home ownership is a foundational principle in this country, and we want to encourage people to buy family homes,” she explained. “And the second one is the 501 (c) (3)s in this country are the quality parts of most of our communities, and we believe in them and I can tell you that I’m a huge believer in being able to contribute to 501 (c) (3)s.”
Walorski added that House Republicans’ tax plan is about 80-percent the same as the one put forward by President-Elect Donald Trump. But there’s one element of Trump’s plan that Walorski’s apparently unsure about: a so-called “border tax” on imports. “That’s going to be, potentially, an issue that we’re going to have to deal with,” Walorski said. “And so the question is, ‘Do you support that? What do you think about that?’ I’d just really like to hear from you.”
In any case, she expects something similar to House Republicans’ plan to be enacted, although it may take up to three years to fully implement. Walorski also expects several regulations to be rolled back, either through legislative action or executive order.
During Tuesday’s event, she emphasized that Republicans are bringing change to Washington, D.C., “To have a House and a Senate and a president, and for us to have the vice president from our state, when people ask me in D.C., ‘How are you? What are you thinking?’ I’m like, ‘I’m the happiest Hoosier alive! Are you kidding me?’ We have such access to what’s actually happening on this reset in our country.”
Walorski expects Vice President-Elect Mike Pence to play a more influential role than some of his recent predecessors.
