Sunday,  March 30, 2014 • Vol. 16--No. 255 • 6 of 33

(Continued from page 5)

pass-through businesses, which means they pay their taxes at the individual rates. In South Dakota, 93 percent of businesses pay their taxes at the individual rate, and 65 percent of all new jobs come from small businesses. These individual operations expend time and money complying with a tax code that could otherwise be spent hiring new workers or reinvesting in their businesses. If we want businesses to expand and hire we need to lower tax rates across the board, both for corporations and pass-through businesses. Letting Americans who are willing to go out into the marketplace and take risks keep more of their own money is the best way to foster economic growth.
• Unfortunately, rather than moving forward with an agenda that will stimulate the economy and create jobs, the president and the Senate Democratic majority has decided to move forward with the failed economic policies of the past five years: tax, borrow, and spend. Earlier this year, in President Obama's Fiscal Year 2015 budget request, he proposed over $1 trillion worth of tax increases. This in spite of reports from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office that revenues to the Gross Domestic Product will remain above the historic average for the next 10 years--without any additional tax increases. This makes it clear that Washington doesn't tax too little, we spend too much.
• Streamlining our tax code will strengthen our economy, improve the competitiveness of our businesses, and greatly ease the tax burden for all American families. As a member of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee, I am committed to enacting policies that strengthen the middle-class by growing the economy and creating jobs and will continue to work with my colleagues to simplify the tax code for all Americans.

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