Grover Norquist, the outspoken founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, lavished praise on President Donald Trump's new tax plan, saying it will create jobs and boost the economy.
"I think the president's proposals are extremely good. They will be very pro-growth," Norquist said Wednesday on Newsmax TV's "America Talks Live" with Bill Tucker.
"These tax cuts that Trump and House Republicans are putting together are in fact going to take us from 2 percent growth a year to 4 percent.
"If you have, as we did with [President Ronald] Reagan, growth at 4 percent a year instead of 2 percent a year, the federal government gains $5 trillion in a decade beyond what they would have raised without the tax cut."
See Bill Tucker on Newsmax TV: Tune in beginning at 12 PM EDT to "America Talks Live" — on FiOS 115/615, YouTube Livestream, Newsmax TV App from any smartphone, NewsmaxTV.com, Roku, Amazon Fire — More Systems Here
That means the $5 trillion allows for tax cuts while still not increasing the deficit, he explained, adding that history proves it.
"That happened with the 2003 tax cut that [President George W.] Bush put forward, five years after the tax cut the government raised more money than they expected to if they had never cut taxes at all," Norquist said.
"The tax cut did pay for itself. Every once in a while people say, tax cuts never pay for themselves. It did in 2003 until 2008."
He said Trump's tax reforms, designed like Reagan's, will "create more jobs and create more growth."
Ditto for the reduction of the corporate tax rate to 15 percent, as Trump wants, Norquist said.
"We're going to take those numbers to 15 percent — from 35 to 15. Now Ireland's at 12.5, so they'll still be a little bit ahead of us. Great Britain's at 20, Canada's at 27, the European average is 23," he said.
"At 15, we will be able to compete with these other countries. At 35, it's very difficult to compete."
The tax-rate cut will have an even greater effect on mom-and-pop businesses, according to Norquist.
"It's even a bigger tax cut for them, it's from 44 percent … [President Barack Obama] was nastier to small, self-employed companies than he was to the Fortune 500 companies," he said.
"The Trump Republican plan takes it from 44 percent, the top rate you can pay as an individual, as a business, down to 15. That's almost two-thirds down.
"You're going to see an explosion of young people able to start new businesses, always wanted to do something, being able to do that, and not having the government kill their dreams."
The Washington-based Americans for Tax Reform is a politically conservative taxpayer advocacy group with a goal of creating "a system in which taxes are simpler, flatter, more visible, and lower than they are today."
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.