Jason Smith applauds Trump for Missouri visit to champion tax reform

U.S. Rep. Jason Smith applauded President Donald Trump for scheduling a visit to Missouri to champion tax reform and tax cuts.

Trump is set to discuss the issue during a visit Wednesday to a Springfield, Missouri, manufacturing plant.

Smith, R-Salem, said the president “promised me in March that he would come to Missouri.”

The congressman said, “I just think it is pretty exciting that the president is coming to Missouri.”

Smith added, “I am glad he is doing it on taxes, which is something I care a lot about.”

The lawmaker canceled a farm-tour event set for Wednesday in Cape Girardeau County so he could travel to Springfield.

Smith said Tuesday he plans to greet Trump when Air Force One lands at the Springfield airport. Smith said he expects to accompany the president on the drive to the Loren Cook Co.

Smith said he and other Republican members of the House Ways and Means Committee have been meeting with the president and his administration for the last eight to nine months to discuss rewriting the tax code.

“What he (Trump) is going to talk about is how complex the code is, without a doubt,” Smith said.

The federal tax code has more than 70,000 pages, Smith said.

“That is 55 times the size of the King James version of the Bible,” he said. “That tells you how huge it is.”

Since 2011, the U.S. tax code has changed more than 6,000 times, Smith said.

“That is more than one time a day that the tax code has changed,” he said.

Smith said the tax code has “so many loopholes.” He added, “We need to simplify the code.”

Ninety percent of Americans “have to have assistance” to fill out tax forms, he said.

Last year, it cost Americans more than $250 billion to figure out their tax returns, Smith said.

Trump believes “we should be able to fill out one page of paper” to file a tax return.

“He believes that lower taxes will mean higher wages for all Americans and result in a better life for all Americans,” Smith said.

Lowering the corporate tax rate would pay economic dividends, the congressman said.

In 1960, 17 of the 20 largest companies had their headquarters in the United States. Today, only six do, Smith said.

“If we lower our business rate, you are going to see trillions of dollars in investment and money return to the United States,” he said.

“We will see thousands of jobs created and revenues will be up beyond belief,” he added.

Unlike the issue of health care, Smith said he believes there can be bipartisan agreement on tax reform.

The GOP leadership in the House hopes to pass a tax-reform measure this fall, Smith said.

Even if that happens, the Senate could pose a major hurdle.

A majority of Senate Democrats said earlier this month they won’t support any GOP effort to overhaul the tax system that delivers tax cuts to wealthy Americans or adds to the government’s $20 trillion debt.

But U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., issued a statement last week in which she said she is ready to work to make bipartisan tax reform “a reality.”

McCaskill said, “This is an area on which I’m optimistic President Trump and I will find common ground.”

She said she wants to simplify the tax code “by cleaning out loopholes and goodies for special interests and lowering the corporate tax rate as long as we’re doing it all through the lens of strengthening Missouri’s working families.”

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641