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Trump’s tax and infrastructure plans key to ending eight year war on business

By Perry O. Hooper

When candidate Donald Trump studied the anemic American economy, he realized the country needed a bold tax reform plan based on conservative economic principles that gave needed tax relief for all Americans, especially the working poor and middle class. He also saw a national infrastructure that was crumpling and for the first time was putting us behind other economies in the world.

We needed a tax plan that rewards success not punishes it. We needed a pro-growth tax reform for all sizes of businesses, and fiscally responsible steps to ensure this plan does not add to our enormous debt and deficit. He commissioned such a plan.

His plan simplifies the tax code by taking nearly 50 percent of current filers off the income tax rolls entirely and reducing the number of tax brackets from seven to four with lower rates for the middle class. Under the Trump plan, business tax rates will come down from roughly 40 percent to 15 or 20 percent, which is not only a boon for business, but a godsend for hard working Alabamians. Slashing business tax rates for both large and small businesses will generate significant new investment in jobs leading to higher wages for all.

This plan reduces or eliminates loopholes used by the very rich and special interests made unnecessary or redundant by the new lower tax rates on individuals and companies. This plan allows Corporations to repatriate billions in profits from foreign subsidiaries to invest into our economy

On the very day, President Donald Trump’s tax is put in place coupled with his regulatory reform, the Democrat’s 8-year war on business will have officially come to an end.

You want to lower the budget deficit? You grow the economy. Every 1 percentage point in GDP growth over the 2 percent average of the Obama years cuts deficits by more than $3 trillion over ten years. To accomplish this, we must once again be a market-driven economy; not an economy dictated by edicts from Washington.

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I don’t want us to be Bernie Sanders socialists. I want us to be free-market capitalists, and I want all the growth that comes with that. The end of Obama’s war on business cannot come fast enough. Neither can renewed economic growth. Early tax reform is the key.

Under Obama urgently needed infrastructure projects such as the Keystone pipeline, were routinely delayed for years due to endless environmental impact studies, red-tape, and obstructionist lawsuits encouraged by the Obama Administration. President Trump’s infrastructure initiative will fast track strategic, targeted infrastructure investments valued at $1 trillion over 10 years. The proposal will cover more than transportation infrastructure, it will include energy, water and potentially broadband and veteran’s hospitals as well. the effort will be guided by the President’s “Buy American and Hire American” principle.

This is great news for Alabama where key projects such as Mobiles Interstate 10 Bay Bridge, Montgomery’s Outer Loop, Birmingham’s Corridor X, and Huntsville’s East Arsenal Connector need immediate attention. Alabama must “pull out all stops” to get these projects as well as others across the state funded as they are keys to the future economic development in our great State.

President Trump’s actions on trade, taxes, regulatory reform and rebuilding infrastructure have injected unwavering optimism into the economy and especially the American manufacturing industry where optimism is at a 20-year high. As Kelly Johnson, the owner of a family run aerospace company in Southern California stated: “Like so many manufacturers across the country, we are so excited that our president has a laser focus on the economy and manufacturing industry sector,”

Closer to home is the former Alatech latex dipping plant in Eufaula. It once provided over 300 good paying jobs and was a major economic engine for Barbour county. In 2009 the plant was shut down and all the jobs were outsourced to cheap labor countries in the far east. Now through the efforts of Montgomery businessman Greg Calhoun and Comedian Steve Harvey the plant is in the process of restarting and the jobs will be restored.

Our President’s focus is all about what is best for America and the American worker; and that should be our focus too.

Perry O. Hooper Jr. is a former State Representative and was the Donald J. Trump for President Campaign State Co-Chair.

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