Supercommittee Member Moving Forward With Corporate Tax Reform

By Andrea Salazar

Fresh off the Congressional Supercommittee’s failure to strike a deal to reduce government spending by $1.2 trillion over the next decade, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) is offering a plan to lower the corporate tax rate.

During an appearance Monday at the American Enterprise Institute, Portman said his plan would lower the corporate tax rate to 25 percent from its current 35 percent and create a territorial tax system that would only tax income made in the United States.

Though disappointed with the supercommittee’s inability to strike a deal to reduce the deficit, Portman, a member of the bipartisan panel, said the bright side was the influx of ideas that came out of the negotiations.

“This supercommittee process was frustrating … but we did achieve some results,” Portman said. “One was coming together as Republicans and Democrats alike and putting together at least a framework for dealing with this issue of corporate taxes. So I’m hopeful that one of the products of the committee is that Congress will now have the ability to move forward on this.”

The senator said he hopes to get bipartisan support for his proposal and said he had seen interest from both sides of the aisle during super committee negotiations, including from Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.). He will introduce the bill early next year.

GOP'ers Urge Senate To Bring 'Forgotten 15' To Floor

By Andrea Salazar

Six Republican members of Congress urged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) Thursday to bring 15 Republican jobs bills that passed the House with bipartisan support to the Senate floor for debate.

Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Reps. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) and Bill Flores (R-Texas) called for an end to overregulation, via measures included in the “Forgotten 15,” as a means to expand businesses.

“These are all things the House has done and the Senate ought to be working on, and done in a bipartisan way,” Thune said. “We need to be working on things for which there is bipartisan support, and I would argue that the 15 that passed in the House would have bipartisan support in the Senate as well.”

Some of the “Forgotten 15,” or “Ignored 20” as Portman called them, include bills that would prohibit the government from regulating the Internet and greenhouse gas emissions and that would allow for offshore oil drilling.

Asked about the stalemate between Democrats and Republicans on increased revenue, Sens. Thune and Hutchison rejected the idea that increasing taxes would solve, what Thune called, a spending problem.

“I am for revenue increases the old fashioned way - by growth in the private sector,” Hutchison said. “Create jobs and then we will have more revenue. That’s the way you get more revenue. The idea of raising taxes permanently for spending programs that are temporary is bad policy. That’s why we’re saying we don’t want tax increases, we want to encourage business.”

Echoing Hutchison, Flores, a businessman himself, dismissed the president’s jobs plan and called for less business regulation.

“The president’s American Jobs bill will not work because it’s a Washington solution,” Flores said. “The American people want Main Street solutions.”