With Noem’s Leadership, House Passes Tax Reform Proposal

Pat Powers

With Noem’s Leadership, House Passes Tax Reform Proposal

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. House of Representatives today passed a landmark tax reform proposal, drafted in part by Rep. Kristi Noem. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which has found support from many South Dakotans, is expected to increase wages by 3.1 percent, add nearly 1 million jobs, and raise after-tax incomes by thousands of dollars, according to the non-partisan Tax Foundation. Meanwhile, the Joint Committee on Taxation found there would be “a tax benefit to all income categories.”

“I have worked hours going line by line through this legislation to make sure the policies contained in it are going to work for families, that they’ll increase wages for folks, and create more opportunity in America,” said Noem.

On the House Ways & Means Committee, which has primary jurisdiction over tax reform, Noem has championed many of the bill’s family-centered policies. Noem was vocal about the need to significantly expand the Child Tax Credit and led efforts to ensure the Child Care Credit and flexible spending benefits remained in the House proposal.

“I am extremely proud of the steps we’ve taken to strengthen families in this bill,” continued Noem. “South Dakota has the highest rate of working moms in the nation. Parents are already stretched thin, so the provisions in this bill are designed to help them – help them pay their bills, take care of their kids, go to work, and maybe at the end of the day, take a weekend where they can go and do something fun with their kids. That’s important to South Dakota.”

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act also includes a handful of provisions Noem has previously introduced as stand-alone legislation. More specifically, the House tax reform proposal fully and permanently repeals the Death Tax by 2025, based on Noem’s Death Tax Repeal Act. Additionally, the bill excludes the Indian Health Service’s Student Loan Repayment program from tax, a provision that was pulled from Noem’s 2016 HEALTTH Act. Moreover, as one of the only members of the House Ways & Means Committee with a background in agriculture, Noem championed efforts to give farmers, ranchers, and small businesses better expensing tools and drive down the tax rate for small businesses.

“If we’re going to keep kids in South Dakota, we need to create opportunities in South Dakota,” Noem explained. “This tax reform package protects family farms from one generation to the next and makes it easier for South Dakota’s hardworking job creators to thrive.”

The Senate continues to debate their version of tax reform. Once passed, the House and Senate will go to Conference to merge the two documents before both chambers take a final vote and put the legislation on the president’s desk.

VIDEO STATEMENT

POLICY HIGHLIGHTS

Simplifies the tax code so an individual or family can file their taxes on a form as simple as a postcard.

Significantly lowers individual tax rates to Zero, 12%, 25% and 35%, while also nearly doubling the standard deduction to $24,000 for married couples and $12,000 for single filers. High-income Americans will maintain the 39.6% rate.

  • 0%: Married couples making less than $24,000 / Single filers making less than $12,000 (the increased standard deduction protects these families from taxation)
  • 12%: Married couples making $24,000-$90,000 / Single filers making $12,000-$45,000
  • 25%: Married couples making $90,000-$260,000 / Single filers making $45,000-$200,000
  • 35%: Married couples making $260,000-$1,000,000 / Single filers making $200,000-$500,000
  • 39.6%: Married couples making more than $1,000,000 / Single filers making more than $500,000

Provides unprecedented support for families after strong leadership from Noem on the issue:

  • Increases the Child Tax Credit to $1,600 per child (60% larger than under current policy).
  • Eliminates the “marriage penalty.”
  • Creates a new Family Flexibility Credit, which provides a credit of $300 for each parent and non-child dependent.
  • Preserves the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (also known as the Child Care Credit) to better support working parents.
  • Allows unborn children to be named beneficiaries of 529 education savings plans

Phases in full and permanent Death Tax Repeal by doubling the Death Tax exemption levels for the first seven years and then fully repealing the Death Tax by 2025. The provision is based on Noem’s Death Tax Repeal Act of 2017.

Preserves and strengthens the Earned Income Tax Credit with provisions to stop widely reported fraud. 

Gives support at important milestones in life:

  • Preserves the Home Mortgage Interest Deduction for existing mortgages and maintains the home mortgage interest deduction for newly purchased homes up to $500,000.
  • Retains popular retirement savings options, such as the 401(k)s and IRAs.
  • Streamlines higher-education benefits.

Excludes the Indian Health Service’s Student Loan Repayment program from tax to help in recruiting. It’s based on Noem’s HEALTTH Act. 

Continues the deduction for charitable contributions.

Allows businesses to immediately write off the full cost of new equipment, which is critical for South Dakota’s agriculture community and was a priority Noem made known during Ways & Means Committee debates.

Creates opportunities to create more jobs and raise wages.

  • Creates a separate and historically low small business tax rate.
  • Lowers the corporate tax rate to a globally competitive 20%.

76 thoughts on “With Noem’s Leadership, House Passes Tax Reform Proposal”

    1. Sorry, lib, I don’t read Vox as it is a liberal, fake news outlet. They aren’t interested in truth or integrity, much like the 2016 presidential candidate. It’s like the Southern Poverty Law Center; if you’re using that as a source you have no credibility with intelligent, honest people. But thanks for trying.

      1. “Sorry” dimwit— That is exactly how you people manage to be clueless on every issue—- Show us what is not true in the article, if you cannot you have proven my claim…

      2. Anonymous 4:16 – You nailed it:

        http://www.nationalreview.com/article/442465/fake-news-vox-ezra-klein

        A quick search lists other deceptive pieces published by Vox: 2016 tax calculator, gun control, Obamacare and the migrant crime in Sweden.

        Vox thinks it’s readers are uneducated and lazy. For example, to end the first paragraph (in article provided through the link) the author states: “Meanwhile, it’s tough for ordinary people to understand what is happening.”. My goodness, that’s too funny;) I suspect it’s only a matter of time before this article will too be reported as misleading.

    2. Ok I read some it: the new tax code will reward the people who save and invest their money, as opposed to people who borrow and spend. How about that. Like saving and investing your money is a bad thing, and the tax code should reward profligate, dissolute lifestyles.

      I think we have seen enough of the results of rewarding people who drop out of high school, have children they can’t afford, waste themselves on drugs and alcohol, throw their money away on gambling and borrow more than they can ever repay.
      A tax code which rewards all the people who don’t do those things is a step in the right direction.

  3. *Adds $1,500,000,000,000.00 to the debt

    *Takes away health insurance from 13,000,000 Americans

    *Makes corporate tax cut permanent, but raises taxes on people making less than $75,000 after 8 years

    *Removes deduction for state and local taxes

    Meh. Sorry, Kristi. Your plan sucks.

    1. How does repealing a tax on people who don’t have health insurance “take away health insurance”?

      1. It’s Liberal Logic 101. If I stop forcing you to buy something and you choose to not buy it you have “lost” it or the naughty conservatives have taken it away from you.

      2. Without the mandate, more healthy people will drop their insurance. With those people gone, premiums will rise (estimated to be 10%/yr by the CBO). Rising premiums will be beyond the means of 13 million Americans according to the CBO.

        1. OK then, me mandating you to buy a new truck every year so that economy of scale will allow those who want to to buy a cheaper new truck is also OK? Health insurance is not a right. Why should I make you buy some so that mine is cheaper?

          1. Because healthcare is not a truck. People aren’t getting sick because they don’t have a new f-150 in the garage. People who can’t afford regular healthcare are routinely less healthy than those who can.afford the insurance with a cheap co-pay.

            “Forcing” people to buy health insurance makes everyone healthier.

            1. Ike, there is zero evidence that health insurance leads to healthier people. If your assertion were so, everyone would be clamoring to sign up. But they aren’t.

              1. “there is zero evidence that health insurance leads to healthier people”— You claim it—you prove it..

                So, you people are happy to pay the overpriced medical bills for those uninsured?

                1. I heard Hillary Clinton address this in 2008: the cost-shifting of uncompensated medical care was costing each of us an extra $800/year.

                  Since Obamacare, most of us now regard that extra expense as a bargain

                2. You prove it..

                  The National Cancer Institute found that late-stage prostate cancer, late-stage breast cancer, and late-stage melanoma were actually much more common in Medicaid recipients than in the uninsured.

                  Do. Your. Own. Research.

                  1. They weren’t Medicaid patients when they got cancer. The for profit insurance greed fest took all their assets and left them to die broke.

              2. In the words of Orrin Hatch, “Bullcrap”.
                According to the New England Journal of Medicine:

                The body of evidence summarized here indicates that coverage … significantly increase[s] patients’ access to care and use of preventive care, primary care, chronic illness treatment, medications, and surgery. These increases appear to produce significant, multifaceted, and nuanced benefits to health…the data suggest that policies that reduce coverage will produce significant harms to health, particularly among people with lower incomes and chronic conditions.

                http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsb1706645#t=article

                1. “Appear” to produce significant, “multifaceted and nuanced” benefits to health?

                  You need to turn your bullshit detector on. What that means is “we have nothing to prove this but we are sure somebody is getting some benefits, we just don’t know what they are”

                    1. Ike, “multifaceted and nuanced” is just another way of saying “scattered and vague.”

                      You need to learn how to read this stuff. The advantage of a large vocabulary is the ability to make people think you know what you’re talking about.

    1. Well maybe instead of going deep into debt to pursue a doctoral degree in philosophy, history of art, or ancient languages, prospective graduate students should consider their earning potential BEFORE borrowing the money. Just a thought. An old classmate of mine got a PhD in women’s history. Last I heard she was working as a sales associate in a retail clothing store. We parted ways during an argument over whose fault it was she was unemployable.

      1. Everybody knows it was Bush’s fault (unless this happened within the last year, making it Trump’s fault).

        Duh!

        1. Fled, it was in 2008. She thought Obama’s election was going to fix the system and she would finally get a job to match her education. Didn’t happen

      2. I agree; if you are going to follow your passion or dream you may need to be prepared to suffer financially for it. Just because it is important to you doesn’t mean it is important enough that people are willing to part with their money to pay for or subsidize it.

        This is like the NEA; why should taxpayers subsidize art, especially when what is called art by the “sophisticated” crowd is often crap?

  5. Anne and Dylan,

    There is a bigger issue here- Fairness.

    Student #1 works at the local bar waiting tables every night to pay for tuition and pays income taxes on the income.

    Student #2 keeps their day job and goes to night school to pay for tuition and pays income taxes on the income.

    Student #3 gets a grad assistant job (“tuition waiver”) to pay for tuition and does not pay income taxes on the income.

    Two comments:

    1) Why in the world we treat the few who get graduate assistant jobs better than the people busting their tail to pay for their tuition I don’t know. Good for the House getting this loophole eliminated.

    2) Once again NPR can’t write a remotely even-handed “news” story about this issue which gives the other side. First, if these graduate students have no other source of income, they will be in a tax bracket where they pay no taxes. They only pay if they are married to someone who is in a healthy tax bracket or they have other income. Second, they mislead by inferring it might affect 145,000 students of which 85,000 are STEM students.

    WHEN ARE WE GOING TO JUST ELIMINATE ALL FEDERAL AND STATE SUBSIDY OF THIS DISHONEST ORGANIZATION?

    1. 1) Why in the world we treat the few who get graduate assistant jobs better than the people busting their tail to pay for their tuition I don’t know.

      Well, when I was in grad school my options were to work for a government contractor for $80 K + or to work as a graduate assistant for $15 K. I don’t recall not having to pay income tax on the $15 K (other than not making enough to have to pay taxes), but I would have been financially ahead in the short term taking the contracting job and paying taxes.

      Why is it unfair to offer people choices?

  7. Fled,

    I am all for choices but Why should we exempt from taxation a person getting a tuition waiver in exchange for being a grad assistant but not the bar tender or the person who works part time in the private sector to pay their tuition?

    1. HI Troy,

      I hadn’t actually read the NPR article before posting above. I think the “problem” NPR is referring to has to do with “funny money” and tuition remission. Nobody (except for kids from Saudi, whose government picks up the tab) actually pays the inflated tuition rates quoted in the article. It’s like JC Penney or health care costs The “price” is X, but GTAs get it for much less (or nothing). If the government is paying it’s $30k, if an educated consumer shops around the actual price tendered is much less.

  8. Fled,

    That is not what the tax law provisions they are referencing. I guess one could make the case NPR isn’t intentionally being dishonest and confusing and not intentionally dishonest. Either case justifies removing the federal and state subsidy.

    The tax law is taking away the tax exemption for graduate assistants who exchange work for a reduction of tuition. The law has no effect on other forms of tuition remission/reduction.

    1. I get that (once I read the article). The point I was trying to make was that if they really charged the $3-4 K/year that tuition is really worth then taking a tax hit on that amount of free tuition wouldn’t be such a big deal. Taking a tax hit on $30k of “free” tuition that’s only worth $3-4K is a big deal.

      I think we’re in agreement, that’s not the fed gov’s problem, (i.e. I’m fine with the exemption going away) that has to do with prices that are artificially inflated due to the fact that no individual actually pays the prices. (and just like that, we’re back to health insurance…)

  9. Ike,

    Are you talking about the Congressional Budget Office that missed Obamacare signup projections by 14 million. Kinda looks all they are doing is making up for their past bad projections. 🙂

      1. This coming from a bunch that has had 8 years to come up with something better than the ACA….. and they can’t do it…This coming from those that elected twice a (r) president that now they won’t and don’t want mentioned and now have elected one that has destroyed the respect of this country in the world among other things…. and they whine if everybody else makes a mistake…. According to his logic I am sure he doesn’t use cars or planes, doesn’t take medicines,or eat, since all those entities have screwed up on occasions….. After Bush and now trump these people and their willful ignorance deserve no more respect than a gnats fart…

        1. Wrong as usual JD. The respect of the USA abroad is improving. We are back as a leader in the world compared with Obama and his apology tours. And this is a good thing.

            1. Ike, did you actually read what you posted? It’s really lame.
              The figures on Obama were gathered between 2014-2016.
              The figures on Trump were gathered last spring, right after he was inaugurated and nobody knew what to expect. People always fear the unknown, and are comfortable with what is familiar. By 2014 the world knew what to expect from Obama, and as of spring 2017 nobody knew what Trump was going to do. People always have more confidence in what they know, whether it’s a dog, another person, a car, anything. Your familiarity with an object is what gives you confidence in it.

              It’s a really really stupid article.

      2. I remember that conservative opponents of the Equal Rights Amendment said if we continue down this road of sexual equality we are going to end up with men in the women’s restrooms.
        And here we are.

    3. CBO missed projections because Obamacare was sabotaged before the projected date by Republicans so afraid of the power of kindness.

  10. Jaa Dee,

    We said Obama’s economic, health law, tax and regulatory programs would make income equality worse. What happened during the Obama years? Income equality got worse. What we missed was the speed and depth it got worse. But we did better than Obama et. al. who promised it would get better.

    1. So now we’re worried about income equality? If that’s the case, why do the rich get a bigger tax cut than the poor? Why are corporate tax cuts permanent while taxes on low and middle class folks set to expire in 8 years?

      1. The poor don’t pay any federal income taxes anyway, plus the receive subsidized housing, school lunches, child care, food stamps, Medicaid, earned income tax credit,. So please give us a break.

        1. So why sunset lower and middle class tax cuts while making corporate cuts permanent? Seriously. Read the bills. All this is doing is giving a bigger slice to those who already own over half the pie.

  11. Springer- All those things don’t add up to the mortgage interest deduction you got so you’re the one on welfare, sweetie.

    1. I remember my grandfather said FDR was a Goddam Communist and all these social programs would make people lazy and bankrupt the country.
      And here we are.

      1. FOR was a communist? Someone should have told Stalin and we could have avoided that while cold war thing.

      2. Your grandpa didn’t know Socialism from Communism either? Socialism is buying common goods as a group to get a better price. Communism is telling citizens what their job will be and how much they’ll earn. You’re never to old to learn, Anne!!

    2. Depends, if the standard deduction for a couple is $24,000 it won’t make sense to itemize if you aren’t paying $24,000 in mortgage interest. Who pays that much in mortgage interest?
      That’s $2000/month just for interest, I can’t imagine it

    3. You don’t know if or how much mortgage interest I pay, sweetie. The point is whether or not I take a deduction for anything, I still pay a lot in federal income taxes while about half of the population does not.

  12. You’re no accountant, Beal. Mortgage interest deduction is called “white welfare” for a reason and is just a way for Republicans to buy votes from you and yours. Just another white privilege that doesn’t exist, huh? Wrong!!

      1. Springer, you have to stay ahead of the game;)

        Math is racist and the reason why Leftists decided this to be true is if they trivialize math they can spout platitudes with no real data to back it up. As you can see the comment presented by 6:25am has some spouting going on.

  13. Wrong, lady. Tax deductions can be racist. Why should a group that’s predominantly white get a deduction that a group that’s predominantly minority doesn’t get? White effin privilege!! Hate on that for a while since your hate on the poor is getting stale.

  16. Ike,

    If you don’t know the rationale you know so little your opinion on the matter is by definition grossly uninformed.

    The corporate taxes are permanent because:

    1). US Corporate taxes are the highest in the industrial world which is impeding growth and more and better paying manufacturing jobs. If they aren’t permanent, they will not have effect of increasing the investment which leads to the growth.

    2). If we could get what Senator Johnson is calling for, the individual rates can and should be permanent. However, people who hate the poor like you and have envy of those who are successful, oppose the higher bracket reforms regarding Sub-S rates which means some forms of business aren’t getting equal treatment.

    If you aren’t grossly misinformed, your hatred of the poor is clouding your judgment. While true there are no stupid questions, it is stupid to form an opinion when one is obviously as uninformed as you.

    1. Alternatively:

      1) Wealthy individuals and corporations buy enough politicians to do their bidding.”I got mine, screw you!”

      2) (see #1)

      As for the rest of your screed, piss up a rope, buddy. If you don’t want to have a conversation, just stop talking.

  18. Ike,

    There you go again. You say you want to have a conversation but you are incapable of discussing the merits of the policy. Your only argument is to claim you can read people’s minds and discern motives. Hard to have a conversation with someone who hears voices in their head.

    But, if you think you can discern motives in your head, I can too. I think you hate the poor and it drives everything out of your mouth.

  19. If you can’t discern motives you have no feelings only logic. That’s why you and Pat could never be elected. Just raw negativity and completely contrary.

  20. Anonymous 4:39:

    1) Liberalism used to consider itself a place of intellectuals. Now it is the home of emotions which is the antithesis of intellectualism. Not many people admit so clearly preferring to be stupid and emotional.

    2) Thank you for the compliment regarding being logical. It is the only way to be intellectual.

    3) T discern motive of individuals, one must observe them up close, personal and over time. Only an idiot would think they can discern the motive of someone they have never met. Those who give positive motive because they agree with someone is wholly likely being manipulated. Those who give negative motive because they disagree are engaging in a half dozen logic fallacies.

    4) When one is admittedly uninformed, being emotional, and not engaging their mind, all others would be wise to not follow such a person into the other’s delusions.

    5) I’m negative? Hilarious. Just because I call out your babble? Do you need a participation ribbon? Your feelings are hurt? I wasn’t nice to prop up your deluded self-esteem?

    6) And, contrary to what? Drivel? You think one should aspire to bath in your drool? That is positive?

    7) Regarding your comment about political aspirations, so much for your ability to discern motives. But, you gave probably 30 people who read/post here who know me well a good laugh.

    1. Emotions are stupid? Your poor family. You know why I don’t call you stupid? I care about your feelings.

  22. Anonymous 9:10/9:36:

    1) I would prefer people care about my long-term well-being and not feed delusions that create false esteem ultimately leading to severe psychological coping problems. BTW, I’m quite comfortable in the outcome of my children and the path of my grandchildren.

    2) The last time I posted on that other blog was when Cory and another regular poster equated sex offenders and conservatives. I gave Cory an opportunity to backtrack and he doubled down. I haven’t posted on there since. So, if anything, I banned myself.

    But the fact you mention it (anonymously no less making you a coward) in an effort to cast aspersions on my character means one of two things:

    1) You listen to people who aren’t original sources (Cory) and repeat they say without corroboration because it supports your deluded world-view (doing such things is how one gets deluded), or,

    2) You make stuff up which supports your deluded world-view

    By the way, you do get the ludicrousness of asserting I’m calling an anonymous person a name don’t you? BTW, where did I call anyone a name?

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