PRESS RELEASE: Heartland Institute Experts React to President Trump’s Tax Plan

President Proposes Slashing Income, Corporate Rates, Eliminating Estate Tax

The White House today unveiled an outline of President Donald Trump’s plan to reform the U.S. tax code. Some of the key components include:

■ Replacing the existing seven income tax brackets with three at new rates: 10 percent, 25 percent, and 35 percent.

■ Eliminating the Alternative Minimum Tax and the Estate Tax.

■ Nearly doubling the standard deduction for married couples, from $12,600 to $24,000.

■ Lowering the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent, and allowing many S-Corps to file under that 15 percent mark.

■ Instituting a “tax holiday” for the repatriation of overseas corporate capital.

The following statements from tax policy experts at The Heartland Institute – a free-market think tank – may be used for attribution. For more comments, refer to the contact information below. To book a Heartland guest on your program, please contact Media Specialist Billy Aouste at [email protected] and 312/377-4000 or (cell) 847/445-7554.


“Although the exact details will need to worked out by lawmakers, Trump’s tax blueprint contains many good starting points for lawmakers to use along the road to reforming America’s tax code. Eliminating the death tax – a tax on assets owned by an individual and passed on to descendants after one’s passing – as well as flattening personal income tax brackets are just two ways Trump’s tax plan will help fix our broken tax structure.

“Lawmakers should work with Trump to help get the government out of the business of distorting individuals’ economic decisions as much as possible, and the ‘Trump blueprint’ is a great start towards that goal.”

Jesse Hathaway
Research Fellow, Budget and Tax Policy
The Heartland Institute
Managing Editor, Budget & Tax News
[email protected]
312/377-4000


“The promise and appeal of Trump’s tax reform plan is that it would be enormously pro-growth, like the tax cuts of both Reagan and Kennedy. See Larry Kudlow’s book on that.”

Peter Ferrara
Senior Fellow for Entitlement and Budget Policy
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
703/582-8466

Mr. Ferrara is the co-author of the Roadmap for the 21st Century, a series of papers (and soon to be an e-book) about policies that will encourage economic growth, reform entitlements, balance the budget, and reduce our national debt.


“Capital gains remains at 20 percent, which is still way too high. We can ‘pay’ for the cuts by rolling back regulations, selling federal properties, cutting entitlements, laying off federal workers, eliminating agencies, letting go of stealth workers who operate under contract from the feds, and eliminating state workers who are tied to federal regulations and transfers. If you did all this, potential annual economic growth might approach 5 percent.”

Christopher Garbacz
Consultant
Policy Advisor, The Heartland Institute 
[email protected]
601/961-5413


“President Trump’s tax plan will lower rates for most Americans, provide families with much-needed tax relief, and spur economic growth by reducing taxes for corporations and small businesses. This plan could end up being one of the most significant tax cuts in U.S. history, but it’s up to Congress to make sure the president’s policy ideas become law. Americans asked for real reform in November, and with Trump’s plan, they would finally get it.”

Justin Haskins
Executive Editor, The Heartland Institute
[email protected]