Rep. Doggett Supports Small Businesses in Tax Policy Subcommittee Hearing
Washington, D.C.— Today, U.S. Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Ranking Member of the House Ways & Means Tax Policy Subcommittee, offered the following opening statement during its hearing on tax reform and small businesses.
You can view Rep. Doggett's remarks here and below: https://youtu.be/uJBuJdslhu4
You can view Rep. Doggett's further remarks here: https://youtu.be/8K7q5b4OdOc
Ranking Member Lloyd Doggett
House Ways & Means Tax Policy Subcommittee
July 13, 2017
"It is very good that we can finally hold the inaugural meeting of this Subcommittee under your leadership. I thank you for responding to my letter requesting that this Subcommittee actually do something this year. I would ask unanimous consent to make that letter requesting hearings part of the record. I know you plan to hold an additional hearing next week, a final hearing before the August recess concerning individual tax, but there are a number of additional topics included in that letter that deserve this Subcommittee's thorough evaluation and I hope we can do that as well. More than one full year after the announcement of the Republican self-styled ‘Better Way' Tax Blueprint, it is rather late that we convene, if the true goal is to enact genuine comprehensive tax reform during the few legislative days that remain in the waning months of this year.
"We do have agreement that small business is a good place for this committee to begin. So often this Congress has riddled in the many pages of the tax code with provisions that reward the giant enterprises that regularly fill this very room with lobbyists, and it often neglects the small businesses, whose owners are usually too busy to even come to Washington because they're trying to make a go of their business. These are the businesses that I represent…they don't have offshore accounts. They don't have foreign subsidiaries and they aren't concerned as to whether they will renounce their American citizenship. I believe we should be taking a close look at the preferences, the schemes, and the shenanigans used to shift the tax burden to small business, while many large multinationals on some of their income, through earnings shifting, don't pay any taxes or next to nothing.
"I believe that we should be seeking common bipartisan ground behind genuine tax reform that is designed to encourage entrepreneurship, support small businesses, and grow jobs here in America. I represent a part of Texas in which small business is vital—it's the part of Texas that doesn't consider having "a taco truck on every corner," a political insult as intended but rather a practical convenience. It is a place where we have many valued, traditional small businesses—restaurants, tire shops, construction subcontractors, but also in both San Antonio and Austin, we have a growing number of incubators and accelerators—places like Capitol Factory and Geekdom with a wide range of high tech startups that are creating our economic future right now.
"As we look at how to encourage the advancement of these very type of small businesses, I think it's important to abide by certain principles.
"The first of these is that we not finance a tax cut by borrowing from abroad, by asking the Chinese and the Saudis to finance our tax cut. We know that there are mystical, mythological, statements made about how all these tax cuts will pay for themselves. They are just never borne out by history and they're not even borne out by the Republican economists like Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who has testified before this committee.
"Second, I think it's important to not tilt the playing field even further to advantage some businesses over others. We should avoid picking winners and losers. More tax breaks for large, profitable multinationals that already pay at times only single digits, doesn't help small businesses. It's basically just not fair when Pfizer – with its 181 subsidiaries in tax havens – pays a lower tax rate than Davila Pharmacy, which I represent on the West Side of San Antonio.
"Finally, I think in tax reform it is important that we not widen the growing income gap in this country. And in that regard, as we look at the specifics of today's hearing, we do want parity for all business but we do not want to create new loopholes. Not all those that benefit from pass-throughs are genuinely small businesses. Many of them are connected to Wall Street, to some of the wealthiest people in the country. They provide opportunities for even Donald Trump to pay less taxes, if that's possible. And so we need to look carefully at the proposals that my Republicans colleagues are advancing to ensure that they accomplish the objective that we share in advancing small businesses."
Today's Tax Policy Subcommittee hearing included the following witnesses: Teresa Meares, President of DGG Uniform and Work Apparel, Scott E. VanderWal, Owner of VanderWal Farms, Rebecca Boenigk, CEO of Neutral Posture, and Chye-Ching Huang, Deputy Director for Federal Tax Policy at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.