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“To get the kind of growth that we need, we’re going to have to provide real tax relief for America –for hardworking families. That means cutting tax rates – and it means simplifying taxes for everyone. If we get this right, we’re going to be able to produce more jobs, Americans will have higher wages –more take-home pay—and we will have a stronger economy.”

Click here to watch Sen. Barrasso’s remarks.

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor on tax reform and the need to simplify and lower tax rates for all Americans.

Excerpts of Senator Barrasso’s remarks:

“Last week, the Senate passed the bipartisan Defense Authorization Act.

“The world is a very dangerous place – and this legislation, I believe, is very important to keeping our country safe.

“Another thing we need to do to keep America safe is to get the economy going and growing.

“We need a strong and healthy economy in this country, and we need it now.

“A strong economy means a strong country – with enough money to pay for the defense needs that we have at this time.

“Over the eight years of the Obama administration, Washington doubled its debt – because our economy grew so slowly, and the administration spent too much money.

“If this sort of thing continues, it’s going to leave America in a much more vulnerable position.

“America needs a stronger economy that grows faster.

“To get the kind of growth that we need, we’re going to have to provide real tax relief for America –for hardworking families.

“That means cutting tax rates – and it means simplifying taxes for everyone.

“If we get this right, we’re going to be able to produce more jobs, Americans will have higher wages –more take home pay—and we will have a stronger economy.

“According to the Internal Revenue Service, Americans spend about six billion hours a year just trying to prepare their taxes.

“Between businesses and individual families, we spend an average of 18 hours for every man, woman, and child in America just trying to comply with Washington’s complicated tax code.

“The National Taxpayers Union says that the total cost of all of this is $263 billion a year.

“That works out to more than $800 for every person in America.

“This is not spending that does anything productive.

“The instructions for last year’s standard 1040 tax form were 106 pages long –15 different worksheets for people to fill out.

“The people who can deal with this level of complexity are the ones who basically can afford to hire expensive accountants and lawyers –who then to take full advantage of a very complicated tax code.

“It penalizes hardworking Americans who can’t afford the high-priced help.

“We hear a lot of people talk about how millionaires and billionaires are gaming the system so they can pay less in taxes.

“Well, if that’s their concern, then maybe we should try to make this system simple enough that there’s no system to game and everyone can understand it.

“Just think about how much we could save this country if we just simplify things even a little bit.

“All the time we save – and all the extra money in the pockets of hardworking American families – that would really help to grow the economy and do it quickly.

“If we also lower the tax rates, that keeps even more money in people’s pockets.

“That’s money someone can spend going out to dinner if they choose.

“The people at the restaurant will have to hire additional servers, and they will have money to pay their own bills, and that’s how an economy grows.

“There’s another important part of tax relief that we need to remember.

“We need to be sure that we solve a big problem with the taxes that businesses pay.

“The simple fact is these businesses don’t actually pay the taxes personally –there are people that have to pay the taxes.

“That’s because businesses pay their taxes with money that they get from their customers.

“So if government says we’re going to put a big tax on some company, then that basically gets passed onto to the workers there and also to the people who buy that product.

“The Congressional Budget Office looked into this.

“They found that more than 70 percent of the cost of corporate taxes actually comes from the people who work for these businesses.

“Nearly three out of every four dollars they spend in taxes would have ended up going back to the workers to have that money.

“Maybe it would have been higher wages, better benefits, or some other way that people would have gotten a benefit from the money that otherwise just gets collected and sent to the government.

“Obviously a big chunk of the money is from the workers. Another big chunk is from the consumers.

“If a family buys something, part of that price that they’re paying is to cover the taxes that that business has to pay.

“Higher taxes means higher prices for people who go to buy something.

“The third way that people pay these business taxes is when it gets paid by the people who own a share of the business.

“There are a lot of people on the other side of the aisle who like to talk about taxing the rich who own stock in companies that are all across our country.

“The only problem is that most of the people who actually own shares in these companies are far from rich.

“More than half of the Americans actually own stocks in corporations that are paying these high taxes.

“Maybe they have an IRA, or a retirement plan, a 401(k) through their work. Whatever it is, Americans who are investing for their future are also being taxed.

“Some of the biggest owners of the corporations and the taxes are actually the pension funds of public employees. That includes teachers, it includes fire fighters, it includes people in every community around America.

“The taxes take away money that could make these pensions worth more.

“So it’s a real problem that the corporate tax rates are so high, because high taxes hold back the entire economy and hold back the entire country.

“If you look at the most developed countries around the world, the United States has the highest corporate tax rate of all of them.

“The average tax rate of all of these major countries around the world, across the globe: 24 percent.

“The United States is 39 percent. We’re 15 percent higher as a tax rate than the average of the major countries around the world.

“That’s the top federal rate plus when you include the average for state and local taxes, it gets you to 39.

“Twenty-four percent versus 39 percent.

“That’s how far out of the ordinary the American taxes have gotten.

“It’s a huge disadvantage for American companies that are trying to compete on the world stage.

“The reason we’re at such a disadvantage frankly is because other countries have been cutting their tax rates over the years.

“Places like Germany, and Japan, and Canada have all cut their rates going back over the last 60, 70 years.

“We haven’t done it here it all. Now it’s time to do it.

“That’s one of the reasons that our economy has been stuck with the slow growth rate that we’ve had in the Obama administration. It’s what we’ve seen over the last eight years, a very sluggish economy with very little growth.

“If we can cut corporate tax rates, personal rates, that is really going to help stimulate the economy.

“People pay taxes. Its individuals who pay the taxes that in many ways run the government.

“We need to get the economy going, and we can do that by simplifying and lowering the tax rates.

“Taxes raise prices. Taxes chip away at retirement savings that people have.

“Tax relief and simplifying taxes makes sense for American families.

“It means more jobs, it means higher wages, and it means a safer America and a stronger America.

“That’s good for our economy, and it’s good for all hardworking taxpayers and the families those taxpayers support.”

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