Fleischmann: Mr. President, work with us

Chuck Fleischmann
Chuck Fleischmann
photo Chuck Fleischmann

Many of us in Congress are hoping that President Obama can find common ground with the new Republican House and Senate, and we can make substantial progress on tax reform, free trade, entitlement reform and education. Unfortunately, President Obama's State of the Union focused on progressive priorities for taxes and education that made little effort to find common ground with a Republican Congress.

Take tax reform. There is a pretty strong bipartisan consensus that for America to be competitive in the 21st century, we need to make our tax code simpler, fairer and more efficient for individuals and corporations. Our tax code is overly complex, with high rates and plenty of loopholes. Similar to what Ronald Reagan accomplished with a Democratic Congress in 1986, we again have a historic opportunity to lower rates for all Americans and remove loopholes in the tax code. A reformed tax code would be fairer to all Americans and can also lead to increased economic growth and in turn more tax revenue.

Unfortunately, instead of talking about ideas for bipartisan tax reform, the president proposed a series of taxes that may play well with liberal voters but are unserious as tax reform proposals. First up is an expansion of the death tax, an inefficient tax that raises little revenue and can break up businesses. Next, he proposed increasing capital gains taxes on wealthy families and taxing large banks that are highly leveraged. These taxes may sound great to populists, but they introduce unneeded complexity into the tax code and raise roughly $32 billion per year, increasing our total tax receipts by about 1 percent. Simply introducing new taxes on investments that target the wealthy isn't a good starting point on tax reform.

On education, we heard more proposals that are unlikely to gain support in Congress. The president proposed making community college free for all students working toward an associate's degree. I think this is a well-intentioned idea, although I am very skeptical of implementing it at the federal level. Tennessee is in fact providing a similar program at the state level, where the needs of local educational and labor markets can be met. What works in Tennessee may not work in Alaska or Massachusetts. These decisions are best made at the state level, where local conditions can be taken into account.

Furthermore, while the program for community college in Tennessee doesn't raise taxes, Obama proposed to pay for the $60 billion cost of his program by removing a tax deduction for 529 college savings plans. These 529 plans are tax-free savings plans used primarily by middle class families to save for their children's college education. Removing this deduction is a direct tax on hardworking Americans, and I find it troubling that President Obama wants to tax one family's college savings to pay for another's college education.

I also would have liked to see the president address entitlement reform. Our budget deficit is considerably lower than it was just a couple of years ago, and while it has lessened the urgency of reforming our mandatory programs, we should use this opportunity to make some of the easier reforms now so that we can protect and preserve these programs for future generations.

The president has an opportunity to reach across the aisle and deliver proposals to help grow our economy, reduce our debt and create opportunity for all Americans. Unfortunately, he delivered a partisan speech which played to his liberal base instead of the American people. It doesn't have to be this way: Divided governments made substantial progress under both Presidents Reagan and Clinton. If President Obama is willing to work with Republicans, the next two years can be productive.

U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, a Chattanooga attorney, represents Tennessee's 3rd Congressional District.

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