Politics

Cohn: ‘Big CEOs’ Are The ‘Most Excited’ About GOP Tax Plan

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Robert Donachie Capitol Hill and Health Care Reporter
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White House economic adviser Gary Cohn said Wednesday that the top executives of the biggest American companies are the “most excited” about the GOP tax plan because they feel it will make the U.S. more competitive.

“The most excited group out there are big CEOs, about our tax plan. They all tell me how they excited they are to get a tax plan that makes the United States competitive, makes it so they can grow their business domestically, makes it so they can — actually pay wages here. People have trapped their money offshore. So, you can’t pay U.S. workers. You can pay non-U.S. workers, ’cause you’ve got the money offshore,” Cohn said in an interview with CNBC’s John Harwood.

Cohn’s statements are not off base, a number of U.S.-based firms are already investing in the U.S. with the expectation that Congress and the administration will deliver on tax reform.

David Farr, the CEO of Emerson Electric and the chairman of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), told The Daily Caller News Foundation in late October that American manufacturers are investing hundreds of millions in the U.S. in anticipation of Congress passing the Trump administration’s tax reform bill.

“My (Emerson’s) capital spending this year is going to be up a little over 10 percent. Next year, I plan to raise it 15 percent,” Farr told TheDCNF. “Manufacturing is doing this now because we are thinking about higher growth in 2019 and 2020.”

The White House released a brief outline of its tax reform package in late September. The administration wants to cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 20 percent, and to shrink the number of individual tax brackets from seven down to three tiers at 12 percent, 25 percent and 35 percent.

House Republicans are currently undergoing the fourth day of markups on their tax reform bill in the House Ways and Means Committee. The House, like the administration, is pushing for a 20 percent corporate tax rate. Senate Republicans are expected to release a draft of their bill after the House version makes its way through the committee process.

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