U.S. Sen. Rand Paul says Congressional Republicans are shifting their focus away from healthcare after several failed attempts at repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act. The Bowling Green Republican says healthcare is taking a backseat to tax reform this fall.
Sen. Paul expects tax reform to be at the forefront of Congress’ agenda. He says 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," Paul said. "We have to have some taxes, we gotta have some government, but I think we need more money to remain in the economy.”
Paul says the tax reform process will be more transparent than the efforts to repeal and replace the ACA. He notes he isn’t on the committee that will review the bill, so he may not have a major role in shaping the legislation. Paul says his overall goal is to see a decrease in both individual and corporate taxes, as well as less government spending.
Paul says the federal government could do more to improve infrastructure for Kentucky 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,” he said.
Paul says 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 Donald Trump says he wants to increase infrastructure spending with a trillion-dollar spending package. Paul notes he hasn’t seen any details on how the administration would fund such an effort.
