Today, at the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce First Friday Coffee, Congressman Jason Smith received the Spirit of Enterprise Award from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for his strong record of fighting for small businesses, cutting taxes and encouraging job growth. The Spirit of Enterprise award is reserved for Members of Congress who cast important votes and advance policy measures that will help grow the economy and bring jobs back to America.
“It’s great to be recognized for your work, but for me, the true reward in all of this is seeing Missouri businesses thrive,” said Congressman Smith. “With President Trump’s leadership, we’ve seen energy rates drop, cut taxes on small businesses to historic lows and repealed over a thousand burdensome regulations that were dragging businesses down, increasing costs and requiring thousands of hours of paperwork.”
Rep. Smith’s tax cuts bill brought $5.5 trillion in tax cuts for American farmers, employers, and workers. Additionally, through his work with the Trump Administration, Smith has been able to remove over $8.1 billion in regulatory costs from the economy. Furthermore, since President Trump was inaugurated, Americans’ confidence in the economy has gone up, and the number of people filing for unemployment has dropped to a 45-year low.
“The economy is booming and rural America is finally open for business again,” said Smith. “In the first year of the Trump Administration, over 1.6 million new jobs were created and the unemployment rate fell to 4.1 percent, the lowest in 17 years.”
After receiving the Spirit of Enterprise Award, Smith addressed the crowd of 200 chamber members in attendance and discussed how, in addition to record low unemployment, many people are bringing home more money in each paycheck.
“Not only are businesses hiring more people and passing along the benefit of tax cuts through bonuses, higher wages and better benefits, but all Missourians are now able to keep more of what they make rather than send that money to Washington because of the new tax cuts law,” said Congressman Smith. “The bottom line is, folks in Missouri are some of the hardest working people around, and they shouldn’t be turning over their hard-earned money to government bureaucrat.”
Smith’s tax cuts legislation was signed into law by President Trump in December 2017. Since then, more than 430 companies nationwide have announced pay raises, bonuses or increased retirement contributions that are benefitting more than 4 million Americans. Furthermore, more than $4 billion in bonuses have been distributed as a direct result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. In addition, all workers, families and farmers are now seeing more money in their pocket as a result of tax rates going down on all individuals.
This is the fourth time Smith has received the Spirit of Enterprise Award for standing with American workers and small businesses as he represents Southern Missouri in Congress. Congressman Smith is the only member of the Missouri Congressional Delegation on the tax writing committee, The Committee on Ways and Means, and was instrumental in writing and passing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Smith also worked directly with the President Trump transition team to help identify a regulatory repeal agenda which was essential to rolling back many Obama-era regulations such as Waters of the United States.
