Truck Lobby Group Praises House Bill, Overlooks Increase to Federal Deficit

Truck lobbying force, The American Trucking Associations (ATA) commended the U.S. House of Representatives’ passage of the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

At the same time, the ATA did not address how the decrease in federal revenues from proposed tax cuts would benefit the working middle class or how it would improve the federal deficit.  Some economists estimate that the budget deficit could balloon by more than $1 trillion as a result of the planed approach.

Here’s what the ATA said: “We applaud the House for passing the first major tax reform legislation in three decades, a bill that will enhance the U.S. economy by encouraging business investment and producing good-paying American jobs,” said ATA President and CEO Chris Spear.

“As the employer of more than seven million American workers and an industry that moves seventy percent of the nation’s freight, the trucking industry knows full well how simplifying our nation’s onerous tax code will get our economy moving ahead at full speed,” said Spear.

“We believe the three basic tenets embodied in the tax reform package—lowering tax rates on business income, broadening the tax base to render it more equitable, and simplifying the enormously complex tax code—will benefit all sectors of the trucking industry represented by the ATA,” said ATA Chairman Dave Manning, president of TCW, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee. “That includes not only large fleets, but the 97 percent of the industry made up of small businesses who operate fewer than twenty trucks.”

“We thank Speaker Paul Ryan and Chairman Kevin Brady for their leadership that led to the swift passage of this legislation, and we now encourage the Senate to pass a tax reform bill that will provide incentives for significant, long-term growth for our economy,” said Manning.

Category: General Update