Majority Whip Scalise Scalise on Tax Reform: ‘Let’s Get It Done’

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 -- House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., issued the following news:

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Fox News Channel's The Daily Briefing with Dana Perino this afternoon to discuss the important step President Trump took to allow the purchase of health insurance over state lines and the House plan to deliver tax reform to American families and businesses.

Key excerpts:On health care...

"Look, from the beginning, President Trump was laser-focused on repealing Obamacare because it doesn't work. Also, he's focused on lowering costs for families and giving families real choices for their health care. You see the move he's taken today. He's helping small businesses have some of the same bargaining power as large companies. Association health plans have always been something I have supported, and I thought was good policy. Our bill would have done a lot of that; we passed it through the House. It was disappointing that the Senate couldn't get it done. Now, you're seeing President Trump saying, 'I'm not just gonna wait. If Congress can't act, I'm gonna start acting to help families lower costs for health care.' I applaud the President for doing it.

...

"I think you've seen here in the House [that we] first were focusing on the big reform, repeal and replace. That was a tough bill to pass, but we passed it out of the House. But there were a lot of individual components of that bill; even some things that didn't make it into that bill that will also help lower costs for families [and] help small businesses get the same buying power as large companies, even buying across state lines. That's something we've been pushing for a long time. You can buy just about everything else. Go online. [It] doesn't matter where the company is- you buy it if you like it, except with health care. That's ridiculous."

On tax reform...

"We've been doing this for a while now. I actually room with the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. We've talked about the detail of geeky tax policy for a long time. Also [we talked about] the importance of what tax reform and cutting taxes for everybody will do to grow our economy and create jobs and make our country competitive again. Let's bring those thousands of jobs back from overseas; from Ireland, Canada, everywhere else, and bring those jobs back to America again. That's what tax reform is about: simplifying the code so that 90% of Americans can fill out their taxes on a postcard or for young people, you can literally fill it out on your smartphone. That's what we're trying to do. We're putting coalitions together now. You see a lot of our members, including Chairman Brady, going out and selling this to the public. There's a lot of excitement around the country. People recognize lowering taxes will put more money into pockets of blue collar workers. It will rebuild the middle class and make our country competitive again. Let's get it done."

...

"I know we're going to lower the corporate rate to not just the average of the world. We're right now the highest in the world. That's really crushing our competitive advantage. We're losing too many jobs overseas. Let's bring them back by lowering the rate. What that number is exactly, I'd like to see 20. Let's have a bidding war to go lower. In the end, you need to have a rate that makes sense and that makes our country not only competitive, but the world leader again. That's what we're focused on."