Sangamon Sun

The Trump Administration's one-page tax reform proposal might not be perfect, but as long as it's permanent it has U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam's (R-IL) support, the congressman said on Thursday.

Roskam is a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and discussed what he likes about the tax reform proposal and how temporary tax policies keep American businesses overseas with Dan Proft and Amy Jacobson of "Chicago’s Morning Answer" radio show.

Proft is a principal of Local Government Information Services, which owns this publication.

“One of the weaknesses that we have in our country is we have temporary tax policy and permanent spending policy,” Roskam said.

Roskam said a permanent tax policy could help bring manufacturing operations and research and development facilities back to America by easing the sense of uncertainty surrounding business-related taxes.

Without a permanent tax policy, decision makers could also be thinking only temporarily, Roskam said.

“This thing’s going to expire in 10 years," he said, regarding the way some might think. "I’m not going to reshore a whole production line."

Unless permanent tax reform becomes a reality, Roskam said his worries about the national debt will persist.

“The best tax policy that we can get is a permanent tax policy,” Roskam said.

Trump’s tax reform proposal reduces the number of tax brackets from seven to three, nearly doubles the standard deduction and eliminates certain itemized deductions, according to CNBC.

The tax plan also benefits the middle class by keeping mortgage interest deductions and charitable deductions, Roskam said.

He also offered some changes.

“Refashion some of these things in terms of incentivizing people," Roskam said. "Tax it using tax incentives for retirement savings."

Reforming Medicare is also important to Roskam, but he and Trump differ on the issue.

“Unfortunately, President Trump during the course of his campaign said he is not willing to touch Medicare, but that’s disappointing because I think that’s where we can do a lot of saving,” Roskam said.