Engler: Tax reform, done right, will increase business investment and set the United States on a path toward strong and sustained economic growth. 

Washington – Business Roundtable President John Engler today issued the following statement on House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp’s (R-MI) comprehensive tax reform discussion draft:

“With Business Roundtable CEOs predicting 2.2 percent GDP growth for 2014, it’s clear that the U.S. economy is not growing to its potential. The most important element of the Roundtable’s plan for jumpstarting growth and job creation is enacting tax reform. Tax reform, done right, will increase business investment and set the United States on a path toward strong and sustained economic growth. 

“Chairman Camp’s discussion draft reflects the challenges inherent in pursuing comprehensive tax reform.  Faced with these significant challenges, Camp has delivered a plan that makes hard choices but is designed to grow the economy. Camp’s first comprehensive discussion draft marks a significant step forward in the process toward the enactment of tax reform.

“Business Roundtable’s longstanding principles for reform of the corporate tax system are to provide a 25 percent U.S. corporate tax rate and replace our outdated international tax rules through the adoption of a modern, competitive international tax system like the rest of the world. Chairman Camp’s draft moves toward achieving these two key corporate tax reform priorities, but we believe that further work is needed to address additional competitiveness concerns and to increase growth. 

“To maximize growth, Business Roundtable also believes it is important that all revenues from corporate base-broadening measures should be applied to corporate rate reduction and to modernizing our international tax system. In the coming days we will analyze the revenue and growth effects of the discussion draft, as well as examine the economic and competitive impact of specific provisions.

“It has been nearly 30 years since the last comprehensive reform of the U.S. tax system. We urge Congress and the President to work together to advance bipartisan tax reform that can build on the Chairman’s starting point to simplify the tax system, advance U.S. business competitiveness and increase opportunities for American families.”