Sen. Rand Paul called on Congress Sunday to be bold when it comes to drafting and passing comprehensive tax reform.
“I really think that we’ve gotta do the most we can and the boldest we can because we need to compete with all these other countries,” Paul said to reporters after golfing with President Trump. “Everybody’s lowering their corporate tax … We really, you know, need to do it. And I think [Trump] wants it to be as big and bold as possible.”
Paul said it was feasible to lower the U.S. corporate tax rate of 35 percent to 20 percent, as laid out by the GOP’s reform plan, because it had worked in other jurisdictions.
“Some are worried, ‘Oh if we do a 20 percent corporate tax,'” Paul said. “My goodness, Ireland is at 12 [percent], thinking about going to 8. You’ve got Canada at 15.”
Paul added he was “really excited” about Trump’s executive order on healthcare, which was signed on Thursday, because individuals and small businesses could band together to buy health association plans across state lines.
“The interesting thing about this is half of the people in our country get their insurance through ERISA [the Employee Retirement Income Security Act] already,” Paul said. “So Amazon, Pepsi, Coke, Microsoft, MGM, big companies all get their insurance across state lines through ERISA plans. Now, we’re going to let individuals get the same thing.”
Paul made the comments after playing golf with the president at Trump National Golf Club in Va., admitting the former real estate mogul won the round.
“The president never loses, didn’t you know?” he joked. “The president and his partner beat myself and my partner by three holes. He’s a little better golfer than I am, admittedly, but we had a good time.”
