ICYMI: Sen. Cruz Discusses Passage of Cruz-Cornyn-Rubio Harvey Tax Relief Bill
Joins KTSA’s Trey Ware and Salem Radio’s Mark Davis
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today joined local Texas radio hosts to discuss his efforts to secure tax relief for hurricane victims in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands among other topics.
Sen. Cruz discussed his efforts along with Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and several members of the House delegation to secure passage of the Disaster Tax Relief and Airport and Airway Extension Act of 2017, which offers immediate tax relief for victims of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria.
“This was legislation that passed last week, that I drafted along with John Cornyn and Marco Rubio,” Sen. Cruz said to Davis. “So it is the Cruz, Cornyn, Rubio bill and it is tax relief for those who have been impacted by the hurricanes. It helps the victims of Harvey, and also helps the victims of Irma, and Maria… It says number one if you are impacted by the storms, you can withdraw from your 401(k) or IRA to rebuild without paying the 10 percent penalty that you would normally have to pay, making it easier for you to access your savings to help rebuild from the storm. It makes it easier for you to deduct personal casualty losses on your taxes without being subject to the ordinary limitations that would apply in other circumstances. It also encourages charitable giving to relief funds by lifting the ordinary caps on charitable giving, and that’s nationwide so that people can give to help Texans impacted by Harvey.”
Sen. Cruz continued, highlighting the tax relief provisions for small businesses.
“And for small businesses - a great many kept paying their employees even though their employees couldn’t come to work. Even though the business was shut down. They kept the paychecks going - this provides a tax credit to those businesses for continuing to pay their employees during the hurricane. And all of these are designed to be targeted tax relief to provide immediate help to the millions of Texans who are hurting badly because of this disastrous storm Harvey. And I was very glad that the Cruz, Cornyn and Rubio legislation passed last week and President Trump signed it Friday night.”
Sen. Cruz also discussed his priorities for fundamental tax reform, including ending the death tax, and implementing full and immediate expensing.
“I believe we’re going to get tax reform done and I think it’s critically important that we get it done,” Sen. Cruz said to Ware. “I think the details are still very much in flux. We’ve seen an initial proposal from Republican leadership and from the Administration, but the proposal right now does not have many details, and so we don’t know the specifics of it. Some of the broad-brush outlines are encouraging, like for example, ending the death tax. That’s unequivocally good. We should be doing that, that’s part of the proposal. I support that. Another part of the proposal is allowing the immediate expensing of capital expenditure in businesses. So if a farmer buys a new tractor, if a small business buys a new equipment, you can immediately deduct those costs. That is unambiguously good for jobs and economic growth.”
Sen. Cruz continued, “What I am urging my colleagues, what I’m urging the President on tax reform is really two words: bold and simple. Be bold and be simple. Don’t just piddle around the edges. We need big meaningful tax cuts.”
Audio from the radio interviews may be found below:
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