Hearing on The Need to Make Permanent the Trump Tax Cuts for Working Families
2025-01-14
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Source: Congress.gov
Summary
The House Ways and Means Committee holds a hearing to assess the need for making the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent. Key witnesses, including business owners, farmers, and policy experts, testify to the benefits of the tax cuts for small businesses and working families. They highlight how the provisions helped reduce taxes, boost investment, and create jobs, while warning of significant economic harms if the cuts expire. The hearing underscores the risks of allowing tax rates to rise—such as a 43% tax rate for small businesses and a 22% tax increase for families—on job creation, business expansion, and economic stability. Participants emphasize the importance of certainty for small businesses and the need for comprehensive, long-term tax policy to support growth, jobs, and family financial well-being. The hearing also addresses concerns about equity, with testimony on the disproportionate benefits to high-income taxpayers and the cost of extending the tax cuts, which would add trillions to the national debt.
Participants
Transcript
The committee will come to order. As of today, we have only 142 legislative days before taxes will go up for every single American if Congress fails to act. One year from now, the paychecks of every working American will look a lot different, as on average, their taxes will go up 22 percent. During the first Trump presidency, the tax cuts were the rocket fuel that propelled America out of the stagnation of the Obama years. By every conceivable measure, American workers and the economy were better off. Americans earned bigger paychecks, unemployment for every group was at historic lows, and poverty dropped to its lowest level in American history. Buying a home was an achievable part of the American dream, not just a dream never to become reality. Low-income taxpayers were helped more than those at the top. American earners under $100,000 received a 16 percent tax cut, while the amount of taxes paid by the top 1 percent, in fact, increased. Small business optimism hit record highs. American corporations stopped shipping their headquarters, jobs, and tax revenues overseas. The economy soared, creating 5 million new jobs.
In the two years after the 2017 tax cuts, the economy grew a full percentage point faster than the Congressional Budget Office projected. In over 10 years, that equals $3 trillion in new revenue. Even though we lowered taxes, tax revenue went up. In fact, we have already seen $1.6 trillion in higher revenues than what CBO projected. Americans are demanding we restore prosperity and build upon the success of President Trump's economic policies that gave the American people the best economy in my lifetime. However, that effort is at risk if we do not make the 2017 tax cuts permanent. If Congress fails to act, the average family of four will end up paying the equivalent of nine weeks of groceries in higher taxes. After four years of sticker shock at the grocery store, that's the last thing families need. Forty million parents will have their child tax credit slashed in half. 2 million family farmers will see the death tax exemption slashed in half. 91% of all taxpayers will see their guaranteed deduction slashed in half. 26 million small businesses will be hit with a 43.4% top tax rate, more than 20 points higher than what businesses pay in communist China. Today, as we speak, businesses are making decisions about where they are going to invest, hire and grow this year and in the years to come. And they're making those decisions based on the taxes they expect to pay. And uncertainty is an unnecessary weight on our job creators and our family farmers who will have to start calling accountants and estate planners to figure out how they might navigate higher taxes.
If we want to continue President Trump's legacy of a strong economy, Congress must act swiftly to make the tax cuts permanent. Americans don't have the luxury of waiting. Many have been waiting for years for relief. Before us is the opportunity to permanently remove the uncertainty and anxiety that dampen business expansion, job creation, and economic growth. Making the 2017 tax cuts permanent is key to unlocking a second economic boom in a second Trump presidency. We would see $284 billion in new GDP growth from a boom in manufacturing, $150 billion in new small business GDP growth from small businesses expanding, hiring new employees, and investing in their communities. $50 billion in Opportunity Zone investments to revitalize the poorest neighborhoods in this country. Over 1 million new small business jobs each year just for making the small business deduction permanent. And just this morning, before this hearing, the National Association of Manufacturers released a new study revealing that 6 million jobs would be saved. including 1.1 million manufacturing jobs by extending the Trump tax cuts. We must not leave families and small businesses waiting for Congress to do the right thing and provide tax relief at the 11th hour. We must make the Trump tax cuts permanent as soon as possible. I'm glad we were joined by our witnesses, Americans whose lives were improved by the 2017 tax cuts, and look forward to hearing their stories.
I'm pleased to recognize the ranking member, Mr. Neal, for his help. Thank you, Chairman. I came to the committee because I believe in the tax code as an engine for change. Let's be clear. I've been a pro-growth, pro-prosperity, but pro-fair shot member of this committee. which is exactly what the American people are asking us to do right now. Recently, the Financial Times and The Economist magazine said that the American economy was the envy of the world.
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