On the morning of Nov. 6, even President Trump’s critics likely felt a surge of optimism. Finally, we could return to the booming economy of his first term and escape the sad economic reality of the Biden years.
Congress now has the opportunity to enact the most meaningful, forward-thinking legislation for North Carolina families and businesses in nearly a decade — reauthorizing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) before it expires in December.
The first iteration of this landmark legislation had an irrefutably positive impact on our state. After its adoption, North Carolinians saw sustained growth in their take-home pay, something President Obama never managed to deliver, and even President Biden couldn’t mess up.
We also experienced the single largest year-over-year jump in income this century once the positive ripple effects successfully took hold.
More broadly, North Carolina’s GDP increased 53.4% following TCJA, compared to under 30% growth in two full terms of Obama-Biden.
Doing nothing and allowing the TCJA to expire is simply unacceptable. In my district alone, in the Triangle area, a middle-class family of four would see a nearly $2,000 tax increase.
This time next year, nearly 120,000 families would see their Child Tax Credit slashed, 87% of taxpayers would lose half their Guaranteed Deduction, more than 80,000 small businesses would face a sky-high 43.4% tax rate, and more than 18,000 family farms would face a punitive Death Tax.
I am working hard with President Trump and my colleagues in Congress to quickly reauthorize this legislation and spare North Carolinians the burden of increased taxes and minimized spending power.
Still, it’s not enough to simply keep the government out of taxpayers’ pockets. We must also roll back regulations that are stifling our economic growth.
In just four years, the Biden-Harris administration imposed $1.7 trillion in regulatory costs. The bureaucratic rulemaking blitz buried businesses in red tape, limited choices for consumers, and contributed to the unprecedented spike in inflation. Seeming to understand the broad unpopularity and damage of their rules, the previous administration chose to circumvent Congress and use bureaucracy to carry out a radical agenda.
Perhaps worst of all, unelected bureaucrats took it upon themselves to pick winners and losers. Through gross overreach, Biden’s agencies did everything they could to hurt legal businesses that didn’t fit into their woke vision for America. Gun manufacturers often struggled to get bank accounts because Democrats created a paperwork nightmare for any banks willing to serve them. When that didn’t work, they issued threats, forcing banks to lock up capital to account for ill-defined “reputational risk.”
Many of these outrageous regulatory obstacles are less about politics and more about sheer laziness and unnecessary complications.
During a recent Transportation & Infrastructure Committee hearing, I had the opportunity to question Raleigh-Durham Airport (RDU) President Michael Landguth about the decade-long bureaucratic maze hindering necessary renovations at RDU.
Beginning in March 2016, Mr. Landguth’s team proactively reached out to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to request expedited approval of an environmental review prior to construction. Had the FAA not dragged its feet and squabbled over arcane details, RDU would have completed construction well before COVID-related cost increases, supply disruptions, and labor shortages further slowed progress.
The RDU team had to take matters into their own hands, working overnight with exhaustive effort to replace slabs of the runway and ensure planes got on the ground safely. Mr. Landguth admitted that isn’t the proper way to run an airport, but the FAA left his team with no choice.
He also mentioned that eliminating one single hurdle — prompt determination on which environmental-review process to require — would have shaved years off construction of the project and had an incalculably positive economic impact.
We must remove these and other burdensome hurdles that serve no purpose but to slow down infrastructure projects, waste money, hurt our economy, and hinder optimal safety measures.
Together, cutting taxes on North Carolinians and rolling back needless regulations will unleash our great state’s economy like never before. Congress has the power to enact this monumental change, and I’m working hard with my colleagues and the president to make it happen.
