Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is visiting Intel Corp. in Oregon today, and it’s not just to discuss the latest computer chips. Ryan’s trip is part of a larger effort by Republicans — and large U.S. corporations — to promote comprehensive tax reform, including a cut in the statutory corporate tax rate.
According to today’s Wall Street Journal (paywall), major U.S. companies are going above and beyond the efforts of paid lobbyists and the Business Roundtable to push for the tax reform they’ve been seeking for years. They’re inviting politicians to their offices to speak to their employees, while encouraging both their customers and their workers to contact their representatives in Congress.
Related: Tax Reform Consensus Taking Shape — but Can It Last?
After Ryan visits Intel, he’s headed to Boeing Thursday. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, visited UPS in Louisville, Kentucky, last week, speaking to employees and customers in an airplane hangar, and is headed to Dallas today to visit AT&T for an employee town hall event.
The tax reform pitch has been pretty straight-forward: Lower taxes help everyone, including workers though higher pay and customers through lower costs and thus more business.
Not everyone agrees, of course. Some worker groups have cast a skeptical eye on the claim that lower taxes mean higher wages. And not all companies will see the same upside from tax reform, especially those that have taken advantage of overseas cash flows.
But many large companies are ignoring the inevitable political roadblocks for now, and are pushing full-speed ahead on what they see as the best opportunity to reform corporate taxes in years.
