“The final and best means of strengthening demand among consumers and business is to reduce the burden on private income and the deterrents to private initiative which are imposed by our present tax system…The purpose of cutting taxes now is not to incur a budget deficit, but to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy which can bring a budget surplus.”
Most would guess this quote came from President Trump, maybe President Bush, or even President Reagan. While good guesses, they would all be wrong. Those words were delivered in 1962 by President John F. Kennedy in front of the Economic Club of New York. Less than a year later, he would be assassinated. A few months after that, the historic tax cuts he had advocated for became a reality in the Revenue Act of 1964. What succeeded after was the creation of 12 million new jobs over a five-year period.
Delivering tax cuts for American families can and should be a bipartisan effort. Whether it was President Kennedy, President Reagan or President Bush in 2003, the cumulative result of their tax cut efforts was the creation of close to 35 million new jobs. President Trump recognizes this, he knows that merely growing our economy on an average of 3% over the next decade would directly translate into the creation of tens of millions of new jobs and that the surest way to get that growth is through cutting taxes.
President Trump is not alone in that vision. I stand with him ready to deliver that tax cut to the families of south central and southeast Missouri. It’s why I fought to get on the oldest standing Committee in Congress, the Ways and Means Committee – where all tax and revenue measures start. And it is why last week I, along with my Committee Members, introduced the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act. Because I know what the President knows – that legislation like this will result in more jobs, lower taxes and bigger paychecks for the families of Missouri.
This legislation will provide immediate tax relief, will get rid of special interest loopholes, and incentivize more employers to invest, grow and hire here in the United States. We get rid of things like the dreaded ‘death tax’ which makes Missouri families pay an additional tax on the transfers of farms from one generation to the next. The Tax Cuts & Jobs Act rewards hardworking families by expanding the child tax credit and reduces tax rates on family run farms and businesses. These tax cuts will result in the average family of four paying 75% less in taxes and also completely gets rid of federal taxes on the first $24,000 every family earns.
In the lower chamber, we have stood with our President and delivered on our promise to repeal the government takeover of healthcare. We have stood with him to remove thousands of pages of bureaucratic regulations holding back our economy, and we stand with him again now, committed to delivering on historic tax cuts for American families.
Doing so will return the decision about your economic future to YOU, not the federal government. President Trump knows that, President Kennedy knew it in 1962, President Bush knew it in 2003 and President Reagan knew it in 1981 when he delivered these words from the Oval Office in support of reducing taxes, “…join me in this dramatic but responsible plan to reduce the enormous burden of Federal taxation on you and your family…In a few days the Congress will stand at the fork of two roads. One road is all too familiar to us. It leads ultimately to higher taxes. It merely brings us full circle back to the source of our economic problems, where the government decides that it knows better than you what should be done with your earnings and, in fact, how you should conduct your life. The other road promises to renew the American spirit. It's a road of hope and opportunity. It places the direction of your life back in your hands where it belongs.”
