Levin: Opening Statement at Hearing on Business Tax Reform

In announcing this hearing, Chairman Camp indicated that it would include an examination of "the trade-offs that… companies might be willing to make given current fiscal constraints."  I think most of us agree that a lower corporate rate is desirable.  But the trade-offs involved in getting there truly matter. 

 

We have learned in our prior hearings that businesses seem generally to agree that tax reform should be revenue neutral.  The inevitable consequence is a shifting of the burden of the current level of taxation, and there will be winners and losers.  We must now examine the true impact on domestic companies if we were to repeal important tax benefits that encourage investment and jobs in the United States. 

 

Considering that we have spent the last four Full Committee hearings on tax reform mostly at a 30,000 foot level, we welcome this opportunity to move beyond generalities and examine the benefits that companies would be willing to give up in order to achieve the goal laid out in the Republican budget of a top corporate and individual tax rate of 25 percent.

 

We indeed need to carefully examine these issues so that we can reform our tax code and corporate tax code in a way that encourages economic growth, investment, and job creation.  With that in mind, I look forward to our witnesses' testimony.

 

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