President Donald Trump touted the benefits of the Tax Cuts and Jobs law and welcomed American beneficiaries of it to share their personal stories during a Friday celebration of the law’s six month anniversary.
Trump was welcomed by a White House East Room packed with supporters. They gave him a loud and prolonged standing ovation and cheers:
The President opened the event by taking a few moments to offer thoughts, prayers, and a message regarding the Thursday shooting at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland:
President Trump then moved to recount the events that have followed the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
“Unfortunately every single Democrat in the House and Senate …voted against lower taxes for the hard-working Americans,” he lamented.
He highlighted the reduction of income taxes, near doubling of the standard deduction, and the doubling of the child tax credit for individuals.
Trump said a family of four bringing in around $75,000 a year would see an average greater than $2,000 income tax cut.
When it comes to businesses, Trump touted the lowering of the corporate tax cut “so the American worker finally has a level playing field.” He promoted the business tax reforms, including immediate expensing and cuts to the “unfair” estate “death” tax.
The President called 100% expensing in the year of equipment purchases, one of the best kept secrets of the tax plann and said, “I think it’ll go down as maybe the most important element.”
He also spoke of the approval of Anwar. He then said he almost didn’t agree to including Anwar because he was angry with someone, but hearing that President Ronald Reagan and others had tried to get Anwar, he decided he wanted it included “immediately.”
Trump touted the inclusion of repeal of the Obamacare individual mandate. “Obamacare is just about over,” he said, indicating that the Department of Health and Human Services is working on a new plan to be released in a very short period of time.
“Six months after our tax cuts, more than six million workers have received bonuses, pay raises, and retirement,” said Trump.
“Over 300 billion dollars was just repatriated into our country in the first quarter alone,” Trump said in reference to a provision of the tax cut law that eases repatriation of funds. He added that many more are being brought back in the hundreds of millions, including repatriation of Apple computers’ funds. He connected the repatriation to the growth of jobs.
“More than 100 utility companies have lowered prices as a direct result of our business tax cuts, saving Americans three billion dollars on their utility bills,” said Trump.
He highlighted unemployment claims that have hit a 44 year low. He pointed also to historically low African American and Hispanic unemployment, low unemployment for women, and low unemployment for disabled Americans.
America finally has a tax system that is pro-jobs, pro-worker, pro-family, and pro-American,” emphasized Trump.
Trump pointed to several guests gathered on stage and allowed two to give accounts of how the tax cut law has benefitted them personally and professionally.
LaSonya Hill shared that the bonus she received as a result of the new tax law is helping her family to fund her two sons’ college educations. Her sons were standing next to her on stage.
Guy Chemical founder Guy Berkebile has hired 30 employees, increased employee bonuses and salaries, purchased new equipment, and built a new and five-times-larger lab facility as a result of the law. Two of Berkebile’s employees joined him onstage. He shared how he struggled in the early years of his company and how the new law has helped his company and employees.
Trump then turned to say that with the tax law in place, his administration is looking to make progress on trade with other nations. “Our trade has been a disaster. We were being taken advantage of as a country by many, many countries,” he said.
He pointed to the resurgence of the American steel industry in the wake of anti-steel dumping tariffs he issued earlier this year.
President Trump said as a result of these measures, “Billions of dollars will come into our treasury.”
Trump pointed also to anti-washing machine dumping tariffs and solar tariffs. He said washing machine plants and solar plants that had been closed are coming back to life.
“Many countries are calling, saying ‘let’s negotiate’,” said Trump. “They weren’t doing that before.”
“All we want is fairness,” he said. “We’re gonna be the smart country again, not the stupid country.”
“Make America great again, that’s what’s happening,” said Trump. “We’re bringing back our pride, we’re bringing back our jobs, we’re bringing back our wealth, and for the citizens of this great land we’re bringing back our beautiful American dreams.”
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