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Rand Paul Talks Tax Reform and Infrastructure Spending Needs

Becca Schimmel

U.S. Senator Rand Paul said Congressional Republicans are shifting their focus away from health care after several failed attempts at repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act. The Bowling Green Republican said healthcare is taking a backseat to tax reform this fall.

Sen. Paul expects tax reform to be at the forefront of Congress’ agenda. He said lawmakers need to figure out what government can do to allow businesses to grow and thrive.

“My goal is basically to have more money return to its rightful owners, the people who earned it. We have to have some taxes, we gotta have some government, but I think we need more money to remain in the economy,” Paul said.  

Paul said the tax reform process will be more transparent than the efforts to repeal and replace the ACA. He said he isn’t on the committee that will review the bill, so he may not have a major role in shaping the legislation. Paul said his overall goal is to see a decrease in both individual and corporate taxes, as well as less government spending.

Paul said Bowling Green’s location near the interstate helps businesses grow and expand. However, he said more could be done to improve infrastructure for Warren County and across the nation. He wants to start by making it easier to bring money back into the country. Paul has proposed reducing the repatriation tax, a fee that applies to bringing money from another country back into the U.S. He wants to reduce that tax from 35 percent to 5 percent.

“But then take the proceeds from that and put it into an infrastructure fund and we would have a new funding source,” Paul said.  

Paul said he isn’t sure how successful his bill will be but adds at least it’s an idea for how to fund improving the nation’s infrastructure. President Trump said he wants to increase infrastructure spending with a trillion-dollar spending package. Paul said he hasn’t seen any details on how the administration would fund such an effort.

 

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