In his speech on the Startup Act 2.0, Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner said Congress cannot “cut and tax” it’s way out of debt, calling the situation a “fiscal cliff.”
“There are a wide group of us who believe we’ve got to reform our tax code and reform our entitlement system but if you dig into the numbers, you can’t cut and tax your way alone out of this challenge around the debt,” said Warner, who proposed the bill with Delaware Democratic Sen. Chris Coons, Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio and Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran.
The national debt is currently over $15.7 trillion. The Startup Act 2.0 would reform the tax code to encourage investment in new companies and create an entrepreneurs visa for legal immigrants who want to stay in the U.S. to launch a business.
“If you don’t have the third leg of the stool which is growing the economy, we’re going to continue to confront that $16 trillion that we had 4 and a half billion dollars a day to,” said Warner.
Rubio called the legislation a “worthy effort to break through Washington’s gridlock and help entrepreneurs create new jobs through key reforms to our tax, visa and regulatory systems.”