Rubio-Lee Tax Proposal Problematic

DALLAS –Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) president Tom Giovanetti released the following statement:

“The Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) opposes efforts by Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Mike Lee (R-UT) to raise the corporate tax rate in the Senate’s tax reform bill from 20 percent to 22 percent in order to spend the additional money on a refundable child tax credit.

I’m sorry to say that, this time, Senators Rubio and Lee are going in the wrong direction and undermining the primary goal of tax reform, which is economic growth. While I appreciate the Senators' efforts to provide additional assistance to working class American families, this amendment takes the wrong approach to doing so. Specifically, the amendment would increase the refundability of the expanded Child Tax Credit and pay for this modification by raising the corporate tax rate from 20 percent to 22 percent. This higher rate would undermine the bill's most critical pro-growth provision, and thereby result in fewer new jobs and smaller pay increases for working families.

Essentially, this is increasing government spending through the tax code, and paying for it with an increase in taxes on businesses. In other words, tax and spend. Not the sort of thing we would expect from two very conservative senators at this late date in the historic opportunity for dramatic pro-growth tax reform.

Working American families with children are already going to get significant benefit from tax reform through higher economic growth, the doubling of the standard deduction, and other benefits. Reducing the economic growth effects with a higher corporate rate takes tax reform in the wrong direction. We hope Sens. Rubio and Lee withdraw their proposal."

 
The Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) is an independent, nonprofit public policy organization based in Irving. IPI president Tom Giovanetti is available for interview by contacting Erin Humiston at (972) 874-5139, or erin@IPI.org.