Meadows talks tax reform, more at Rotary gathering

Times News (Hendersonville, NC)

Oct. 18--Congressman Mark Meadows showed some optimism about upcoming tax reform efforts on Capitol Hill during a talk to Hendersonville Rotarians Tuesday, saying he expects a budget to come out later this week. A bill could also make it to President Donald Trump's desk before the end of the year.

Meadows made several stops in the district Tuesday, having lunch with the Hendersonville Rotary Club at The Chariot. He spoke about tax reform, inaction in Washington and more before fielding questions from the audience.

"It's time that we actually put more of your money back in your pocket instead of the other way around," Meadows said. He's looked at too many oversight panels showing inefficiency or a lack of oversight, he added, such as $6 million spent for six Kashmir goats to send to Afghanistan, "but we don't even know where they are."

The Senate will pass a budget this Thursday, he said, likely one that "unlocks the gate for tax reform." Approximately two weeks after that, a real tax reform plan should come out of the House and start being debated.

Meadows said the plan will include a 20-percent corporate rate, a 25-percent small business rate, removal of the alternative minimum tax, removal of the estate tax, a doubling of the standard deduction for middle-income workers, seven tax brackets reduced to three, a territorial tax that will make the U.S. competitive globally and a repatriation to mandate foreign earnings be brought back to the U.S. to be invested domestically.

Hopefully, he added, it will be voted on in November or, at the latest, the first week of December, and head to the president's desk for a "retroactive tax cut for all Americans that gets signed into law before the end of the year."

"It's all about trying to make sure we get rates down for small businesses and middle-income wage earners, not just the special interest lobbyists, and so far, it looks very promising on those two fronts," Meadows said. He added that it's also about "economic growth and making sure that we can employ more people."

Asked for how likely he felt that was to happen this year, and how much Democratic support he expected for the reform package, Meadows said that on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most optimistic, he'd put it at a 7.

Meadows, chair of the House Freedom Caucus, said he and former chair Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) have been reaching out to Democratic colleagues. At the end of the day, he expects at least 15 Democrats to come across on the House side and maybe four Democrats on the Senate side.

On the status of the effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, following Trump's recent executive order, Meadows said he's working closely with Senate and House colleagues. Something may come before the end of the year to lower premiums and stabilize the market in the short-term, but any full repeal and replace effort won't happen until February or March, if it gets done by then.

Meadows also summed up what he's hearing from constituents in one word: frustration.

"I'm hearing mostly that the House and the Senate have failed to put enough meaningful legislation on the president's desk," he said. "And that frustration, you can taste it, feel it everywhere you go, and it's time that we quit talking and we start doing."

If that doesn't happen, he said, there will be consequences in midterm elections. He said he's been reaching out to Democrats in both the House and Senate to find some commmon ground so any bills aren't passed with just the narrowest margins.

He was also asked about former White House strategist Steve Bannon's recent statements about working to fight GOP establishment members of Congress.

Meadows said if members can't produce anything but excuses, they need to go home.

"I am one that believes if we cannot get it done, we need to send them home -- myself included," he answered. "I'm actually for term limits... This is not a career. What I had before I went into office was a career. This should be a temporary job that you hold looslely and serve at the will of the people."

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