At Hearing, Secretary Mnuchin Agrees Tax Reform is Working to Boost Jobs, Wages and Investment
At a
A transcript of his remarks can be seen below and a video can be found here (https://youtu.be/MR9-pvOVT6Y):
Portman: "Mr. Secretary, I appreciate you being here and you're here during a time where we can brag about what we've accomplished, which is a tax bill that's helping middle-class families throughout
"I've been all around
Secretary of
Portman: "When you look at the 199A pass-through issue, I heard earlier some of my colleagues talking about folks who were above the threshold getting too much of the benefit. I would make two points. One, that's about 4.9 percent of taxpayers. Number two, they only get a deduction when they do one of two things, right? Pay wages or make investments. Isn't that good?"
Secretary Mnuchin: "That is good."
Portman: "When you look at the wage growth and when you look at the investment growth, part of it is because you and we working together put together a pretty smart package on 199A. It's not perfect, nothing is in this complicated tax code and this complicated world that we live in but this has enabled us to be able to see higher growth, don't you think?"
Secretary Mnuchin: "It is and I want to personally thank you for the work that you've done in particular on this issue."
Portman: "You and I worked together a lot on the international side. Again, very complicated. I will give you a quote from a group that met in 2015, the
Secretary Mnuchin: "Either that or again, an additional slowdown in the economy."
Portman: "I look at the numbers, businesses were being acquired or inverting at a rapid rate. Three times as many businesses being bought by others rather than the US buying those businesses and we've managed to reverse that and now have money actually flowing back in. Two final questions quickly. One is with regard to
Secretary Mnuchin: "I do and the commissioner and I would look forward to coming up and sitting down with you and going through that."
Portman: "I think it would be time. One of the things that we've talked about that I want to get your view on is the
Secretary Mnuchin: "I'd like to go through that with you and kind of weigh the benefits and the issues. Again, there's a difference between oversight and advisory, but again I'd love to come and talk to you and we could discuss the benefits and the issues."
Portman: "I think it's a matter of establishing a strategic direction that's consistent for the agency. I would like to work with you on that and I hope that you could give us some ideas of what kind of expertise you would be looking for on perhaps a board that is more streamlined and more effective. The other one is retirement security, my time is expired so I'll just ask you, for the record if you could, just tell us what your views are on trying to move forward with a broader retirement package? We have RESA that we got so close to passing. We also have this issue of frozen defined benefit plans. The Retirement Security Preservation Act deals with that. We've got about 420,000 beneficiaries that stand to lose benefits this year alone if we don't deal with that so I would love to hear your thoughts on that at the appropriate time. If you want to give an answer now, if the Chairman will allow you, otherwise I have to yield back my time."
Secretary Mnuchin: "I would just comment that retirement savings is an important issue and we look forward to working with you on it."
Sens. Portman, Brown Introduce the Pension Accountability Act to Provide Ohio Retirees a Fair Vote on Pension Cuts
NAMIC: Banning Credit Data in Auto Insurance Underwriting Would Hurt Consumers
Advisor News
Annuity News
Health/Employee Benefits News
Life Insurance News