While Congressional Democrats spent the August recess pushing for higher corporate taxes, Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee were at the Iowa State Fair, hearing how a lower corporate tax rate is important to rural America.
Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) and eight of his colleagues came to the fairgrounds to learn firsthand from Iowa farmers, local business owners, and others how lower corporate taxes have helped the local communities across the state.
Karen Dewalt, a company vice president of Home Depot, which has ten stores in the state and 80 small business suppliers in Iowa and Missouri, said the lower rate enabled them to “aggressively invest back into our business and our people,” across the country, increasing wages by billions of dollars for more than 400,000 employees, establishing over 100 new warehouses, and opening 80 new stores. The lower rate is supporting thousands of small business suppliers to their stores and customers, stimulating local economies and communities.
Steve Sukup, the head of a family-owned and operated manufacturer in Iowa, testified that the lower corporate rate was “a shot in the arm to the manufacturing sector.” The 21% rate allowed him to “grow our workforce by a third,” bringing in 200 additional employees. The lower rate resulted in an increase in manufacturing investment in the state and a stronger economy.
Testimony submitted by Corey Jorgensen, CEO of Shell Rock Soy Processing, described how the lower corporate rate encouraged investment in his company’s new soybean crush plant, which has been a boon to the farmers, truckers, suppliers, customers, and local communities in the state.
The new plant operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week processing soybeans from “hundreds of farms” in northeast Iowa, aiding workers, local businesses, and families in the rural communities. The plant received a strategic investment from Phillips 66, a leading independent U.S.-based refiner, which also committed more than one billion dollars into a West Coast renewable fuels project.
This hearing provided real world examples of how the lower corporate tax rate is helping working families, farmers, and small businesses in local communities in Iowa. The higher corporate tax rate that Vice President Harris and other Washington Democrats are pushing would reverse these gains and hurt working families and job creators across the country.
The Worth of a Lower Corporate Tax Rate to Rural America
September 05, 2024
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