U.S. Rep. Williams in Marble Falls touting tax cuts, Main Street America
U.S. Rep. Roger Williams (R-Austin) visits with Marble Falls-area business owners during an Aug. 17 stop. Williams held the Small Business Roundtable to share his Jumpstart America tax-reform plan with business owners and community leaders. Williams, who represents the 25th District of Texas, outlined eight things he’d like to pass, including cuts to personal income tax, corporate taxes, and payroll taxes. Go to williams.house.gov to look at the plan. Staff photo by Daniel Clifton
EDITOR DANIEL CLIFTON
MARBLE FALLS — U.S. Rep. Roger Williams laid out his vision for boosting the U.S. economy to Marble Falls-area business owners and community leaders during a Small Business Roundtable on Aug. 17 at the Market on Avenue H.
“We have to jumpstart our country, and we do that through Main Street,” said the Republican, who represents the 25th District of Texas.
Williams pointed out that he’s almost an anomaly in Congress in that he’s a business owner and understands the challenges businesses face.
Earlier this year, he rolled out a tax-reform plan called Jumpstart America, which calls for several tax cuts and other changes he said will help boost the economy.
“I ran for office to help small businesses,” he told the group of people gathered around the table at Market on Avenue H. “Number 1, I’m focused on tax reform.
“We have the highest taxes in the world,” the congressman added.
Reducing taxes will put more money in the coffers of business owners and the pockets of employees, Williamson said. That money, he added, wouldn’t just sit there; businesses would use it to grow their operations and employees would spend it, spurring a faster economic growth.
Williams discussed several tax reforms for which his plan calls, including cutting personal tax brackets to 20 percent and 30 percent; lowering the corporate tax rate to 20 percent; cutting the payroll tax; cutting the capital gains and dividends tax to 15 percent or zero percent; and eliminating the inheritance tax.
He pointed that something as simple as cutting the payroll tax rate in half would save businesses quite a bit of money. He used his family’s car business, which his daughters run, as an example. By cutting the payroll tax rate in half, the business would save about $16,000 a month.
“You know what? We’re not going to save that,” he said “We’re going to hire technicians. We’re going to give raises.”
He added that by doing away with the inheritance tax, businesses could create thousands of new jobs.
“We have to allow the private sector to cashflow our country,” Williams said.
As one of the few business owners in Congress — on either side of the aisle — Williams spends a lot of time educating his colleagues about the issues business owners face. Taxes are a big part of the problem, he said.
Instead of finding people who understand owning and managing businesses, Williams said he often runs into interference, particularly related to terms he’s never heard outside of Washington, D.C.: “pay for” and “revenue neutral.”
“With tax cuts, everybody wants to know how are you going to pay for it,” Williams told the business owners and community leaders. “It’s called economic growth.”
He pointed out that businesses and their employees aren’t going to hoard money they gain through tax cuts.
“We’re Americans; we don’t save,” the congressman said. “We spend.”
That spending, either through growing a business or purchasing products and services, churns out a stronger economy and adds jobs.
As for the term “revenue neutral,” Williams said that makes no sense to a business owner like himself. It would be like owning a business and not trying to increase revenues from year to year. Instead of keeping a tax system and regulations that hold businesses back, Williams is advocating for ones that cut them loose.
“(Many in Congress) don’t understand Main Street America. We have to let Main Street work,” he said. “We have to empower the greatest asset we have, and that’s the American people.”
Williams said he’s previously filed his tax-reform steps in Congress, but time ran out on them. When he returns to Washington on Sept. 5, the congressman plans to get back to work on tax reform and his Jumpstart America plan.
Williams’ Congressional district runs from Tarrant County in the north to Hays County in the south and encompasses Burnet County. Go to williams.house.gov for more.
4 thoughts on “U.S. Rep. Williams in Marble Falls touting tax cuts, Main Street America”
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As noted financial columnist Scott Burns wrote last year, Williams’ employment tax cut will cause an immediate crises in Social Security, reducing the taxes supporting it by a third, but Williams doesn’t care, because he doesn’t need Social Security as do many folks in CD25. Burns said that if you want your parents to live with you for the rest of their lives, go along with that tax cut.
Williams’ mania about cutting inheritance taxes, which effect .2%, that’s POINT 2% of Americans is another red herring, just a way to starve programs of tax money. Anyone with the size estate affected by inheritance taxes ($5.49 million for individuals and $10.98 million for couples) SHOULD have a well thought-out estate plan, which includes gifting the estate ahead of time to family, and an insurance policy to cover any taxes that will be due. That is what good business people do.
As to his false claim that the US has the “highest taxes in the world”, when the current President said that, Politifact checked it and rated it as “false.” Just because Williams said it doesn’t change that fact.
Trickle down economics doesn’t work, when George H.W. Bush called it “voodoo economics”, he was more accurate. As a small business owner, and wife of a small business owner, I’ll tell you that we don’t add staff because we have more money due to tax cuts. We add more money when there is more demand for our product. If you want to have more money in the economy, then we need to make sure everyone has a living wage, and lower the cost of higher education, including the interest rate for student loans, and make sure that everyone has access to affordable health insurance. When young people graduate college with high 5 to 6 figure debt, they’re not able to participate in the economy, not able to buy homes and all the accoutrements that go with it. When people don’t lose everything due to medical debt and an unexpected illness or accident, they also have more to spend. Williams doesn’t want to “repeal and replace”, he wants to “repeal and revert.” He says insurance worked “just fine” before- not for most of us, it didn’t. The ACA is far from perfect, but it got many people in CD 25 health insurance where they didn’t have it before. I support an opt-in public option as way to bring down costs, Williams supports you being left out on your own to sink or swim. As a woman of faith, I believe that Jesus was serious when He said that what we do to the “least of these” is important. In our church, we talk about how we’re to be God’s hands on earth, that we “win” by helping others, not by gathering as much for just us and leaving others to sink.
One final thing that would be nice to note is that Williams does not hold open forums, they are usually limited to invitation only. Democrats are most often not included in his meetings. They are generally reserved only for Republicans. That is not representative government.
I guess he doesn’t remember why the rules on business were needed in the first place. “Trickle Down” theory has been tried before and did not work. Why, because business did NOT invest their tax cuts in there employees. It’s called “Greed”. It’s a basic human trait that cannot be stopped without controls. That’s just human nature. Let’s at least try to learn from our mistakes.
41 countries have higher rates. Roger is just spouting Trump lies.
http://www.politifact.com/virginia/statements/2015/oct/20/donald-trump/trump-says-us-has-highest-tax-rate-anywhere-world/
We do not have the highest taxes in the world! That has been proven false many times. Would have been nice to have a town hall, but only the chosen few got to meet with him. He needs to go!