Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, said Tuesday it’s “embarrassing” Congress hasn’t yet acted on infrastructure or tax reform — two issues that are at the top of President Trump’s legislative agenda.
“I’m a proud American. But what’s embarrassing to me is our inability to get infrastructure done properly,” Dimon told CNBC. “We haven’t built a major airport hub in 20 years. The last one was [in] Denver. China’s done 75 in the last 10 years.
“I just mentioned education. We don’t have a competitive tax system here. I travel around the world, and you meet presidents and prime ministers. Everyone knows that they need a healthy business environment to create jobs and wages, and to have a healthy business environment, you need a competitive tax system.
“Our tax system is becoming less competitive over the last 20 years. Everyone has improved theirs. We simply haven’t.”
Dimon, who is a member of Trump’s Strategy and Policy Forum, said he wasn’t blaming Republicans or Democrats for the lack of action, particularly on tax reform, but rather said the overall leadership of the country hasn’t done enough to implement policies that spark jobs and wage growth.
“I’m not going to blame anyone,” he said. “Everyone wants to get it done, or at least everyone in the Republican Party. We don’t quite know what the Democrats want to do with tax reform, but my major point is we should all get together and work as hard as we can to get it done. If we fail, we fail. But I’m going to give it my best shot. I think it’s critical to America.”
“I’m not criticizing Washington. I’m criticizing us collectively,” Dimon continued. “Collectively, the leadership of America hasn’t done the thing that could get us growing faster — jobs and wages.”
Dimon made headlines last month after he criticized the federal government on an earnings conference call for his company.
“It’s almost an embarrassment being an American citizen traveling around the world and listening to the stupid shit we have to deal with in this country,” Dimon said.
Republicans have shifted their focus to reforming the tax system after efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare failed in the Senate last month.
In addition to tax reform, infrastructure also tops Trump’s legislative agenda, and the White House held a series of events in June to promote the president’s $1 trillion infrastructure plan.
