By Robert Pembroke
One of our morning newspapers published a column that was as close to being fake news as I have ever seen. The writer’s premise was that the middle-class taxpayers were going to be paying more taxes than they are paying now. Don’t you believe it!
The tax reform act that Trump signed into law makes corporate tax rates permanent but individuals’ rates will eventually expire. Now I ask you this: Do you think that the president and Congress have the guts to raise federal taxes on about 100 million households in 2027? I don’t.
I am truly excited about what the future holds for our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I have always been proud of being an American and after traveling the world, I realize our country is by far the best place to live and now the future of the United States looks even brighter.
In my opinion, America needed a tectonic change in direction and I do believe that the Trump administration is making this happen. Like most of you who watched the presidential campaign, I thought Trump was making boisterous campaign promises just to get elected, but low and behold, Trump, like Truman, Kennedy and Reagan, is keeping his campaign promises.
So why am I so optimistic? Let’s start with the regulatory changes that are happening. I have opined many times that man is causing climate change and we must be vigilant to make our world safe to live in for future generations. But like most other things, the devil is in the details.
“Mr. Trump signed the order at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), undoing a key part of the Obama administration’s effort to tackle global warming. The order reverses the Clean Power Plan, which had required states to regulate power plants, but has been on hold while being challenged in court,” wrote the BBC in April.
The whole world needs an abundant and low-cost source of energy. With the new sources of energy that have been found through fracking coupled with the wind, sun and hydroelectric sources, America is in great shape, but this is not the case for the undeveloped world. America must redirect the amount of money that it spends on climate change to the billions of people that are not as fortunate as us.
Trump has also made an attempt at reducing the cost of complying with regulations for small business and is trying to reduce the outrageous cost of healthcare that plagues all of us. Just the elimination of the individual mandate, I believe, will take a huge whack out of the insurance companies’ profits. I do though, disagree with Trump’s stand on trade, but thank goodness market forces will put a stop to this imbecilic policy.
The Republican Party’s tax reform plan is a good first step, but it is just a first step. America is over-taxed. When I started working full time, the combination of federal, state and local taxes was under 30 percent. Today, those same taxes are approaching 50 percent. This burden cannot be maintained and hopefully will be reduced. American households are having trouble making ends meet and need relief.
The very first column I wrote for The Enterprise was titled “The 15 Percent Solution” and in it I tried to make the point that a flat income tax of 15 percent was an excellent way to make America even greater. In the column, I stated, “Our country has been systematically flawed when it comes to entrepreneurship. For decades, big business has crafted policy that favors (entrepreneurs) over small business. They pay an effective rate of 13.7 percent on earnings while a small-business owner pays in the neighborhood of 29 percent.”
Another statement I made was, “I believe that if we can get America to accept a 15 percent flat tax rate on small businesses, we can easily pay for those ‘liberal’ ideas.” Fellow Americans, let’s take a stance and encourage our president and Congress to continue to update and improve our tax code.
Robert Pembroke is the former chairman and CEO of Pembroke’s Inc. and can be reached at pembroke894@gmail.com.