Ryan visits New Albany, talks taxes
House Speaker Paul Ryan watched workers Wednesday at a New Albany business pack beauty products and he checked out fish chum. But he ignored reporters’ questions about the controversy consuming Washington — President Donald Trump’s Tuesday evening firing of FBI Director James Comey.
Ryan was at the Accel Inc. plant to tout his tax reform proposal: a mix of tax cuts for businesses and a steep tax on imports.
The visit came less than a day after Comey’s firing stunned members of Congress in both parties.
Ryan’s staff said he would not be taking questions at the New Albany event because he had a schedule to keep and because he’d be appearing on Fox News later in the evening. Even so, reporters shouted questions to the speaker twice when he was within earshot.
The Wisconsin Republican acknowledged that he heard them at the beginning of a roundtable discussion with Republican Reps. Steve Stivers and Pat Tiberi, both of central Ohio, and business leaders. Ryan said he would address the matter later.
Reporters were ushered out of the Accel plant shortly after the start of the roundtable discussion, but not before Ryan said tax changes are needed so that more companies could follow Accel’s example of bringing good jobs back from overseas.
“What you have here embodies the American Dream,” the speaker said.
Workers in the plant said they started at $10 an hour, while one, a team leader, said she made $14 an hour.
At the heart of Ryan’s tax proposal is an idea that itself has generated controversy — and opposition.
The “border-adjustment tax” would slap a 20 percent tariff on imports in an attempt to promote domestic manufacturing and raise money to pay for a reduction in the corporate tax rates and other tax reductions that have been projected to primarily benefit the wealthy.
Some business leaders say they worry the tax would not boost manufacturing.
Eric Burkland, president of the Ohio Manufacturers Association, said he liked the idea of tax simplification.
“However, we’re concerned that this is so complex and so global that it would have significant unintended consequences,” he said.
Jon Barela is CEO of the Borderplex Alliance, a business group representing western Texas, New Mexico and northern Mexico — a region that would be heavily affected by the border-adjustment tax. Like Burkland, he lauded Ryan’s desire to simplify the tax code, but said the border tax would only complicate it.
Saying that 178,000 Ohio jobs depend on trade with Mexico, Barela said the tax is a likely violation of World Trade Organization rules.
“It would most certainly spark a complaint and a trade war with parties like Mexico,” Barela said.
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, also appeared to pour cold water on the border-tax idea during an appearance on CNBC last month.
The former U.S. trade representative said, “let’s go for a more traditional approach at this point and see if we can build a consensus around that.”
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, didn’t respond directly when his office was asked if he supported the border-adjustment tax.
“I want to see us cut taxes for Ohio families, workers, and small businesses,” he said in an email. “If I see legislation that achieves that goal, I will work with my colleagues — regardless of party — to pass it. But that’s not what we have seen so far. The administration and the speaker have instead promoted plans that favor tax cuts for giant corporations, billionaires, and banks that are financed by cutting Social Security and Medicare.”
About 60 protesters made the trip from across Ohio to make their feelings known about the Comey firing, the American Health Care Act that was passed last week by the House and Ryan’s tax proposal.
“Because of Paul Ryan people will be dyin’,” was one of their chants, referring to the House-passed healthcare bill, an earlier version of which was estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to cost 24 million Americans their health insurance.