Tom Rice: “Today, I rise in strong opposition to this partisan bill that would give millionaires and billionaires a tax cut and do…”

“Today, I rise in strong opposition to this partisan bill that would give millionaires and billionaires a tax cut and do nothing to help the middle class. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act brought prosperity throughout the Nation and to people of every demographic and every income level. Unemployment is at 50-year lows, all-time lows for African Americans and Hispanics. American economic growth remains the envy of the world. After years of stagnation under the Obama administration, middle- class wages are growing at rates not seen in over a decade. Opportunity has been restored in this land of opportunity. How did the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act accomplish all this? Primarily, it cut tax rates for businesses to make them more competitive in the world, especially small businesses that employ two-thirds of American workers. H.R. 5377 eliminates the $10,000 cap on the deductibility of State and local taxes, referred to as the SALT deduction, and pays for it by raising the top rate from 37 percent to 39.6 percent. This, however, is the rate paid by many of the small business owners that employ all of those Americans and restored our prosperity. This would absolutely make those businesses less competitive in the world and would dampen America's renewed prosperity. Madam Speaker, even worse, the $10,000 cap on deductibility of the SALT deduction is more than sufficient for over 90 percent of Americans. Lifting this $10,000 cap is a plain tax cut for the rich.…”