William Brangham:
Among the biggest winners with today’s budget bill are corporations and small businesses. The bill would make permanent the tax breaks from President Trump’s first term, as well as expanding provisions on company expenses and itemizations.
Manufacturers in particular are supportive of the bill. Companies could fully and immediately deduct the cost of new manufacturing plants. It also has incentives for producing semiconductors.
So, for a business perspective on all of this, I’m joined by Jay Timmons. He’s the president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers.
Jay Timmons, thank you so much for being here.
In this bill, how vital was the — making the 2017 tax cuts permanent? How much of that was a factor for you all?
Jay Timmons, President and CEO, National Association of Manufacturers: Honestly, William, it was huge.
Look, in 2017, I think we had a great victory for manufacturing in America, but it was a temporary victory. We knew all along that, especially for small manufacturers, who are so critical to the supply chain for manufacturers, larger manufacturers, we really only had a victory that would last until 2025.
And, in fact, some provisions in that bill, as you know, interest deductibility, full expensing, research and development credits, those already expired. So, the big challenge was making sure that the pass-through deduction for small businesses did not expire at the end of this year. It would have cost six million jobs, one million of those in manufacturing, and about a $1.1 trillion hit to our economy.
But I think kind of the unsung good news of this bill is that the corporate rate didn’t change. Even just a few weeks ago, there were folks talking about, well, maybe we should put a few more points on the board on the corporate side. That’s not a good message for manufacturers who we would like to invest in their new plants and equipment here in this country.
