We haven’t reformed our tax system in this country since 1986 when most people didn’t have a personal computer or even knew about the internet. To put it mildly, our tax system is outdated and includes a lot of flaws that are hurting hard-working American families and our country.

We need to do better! We can do better! That’s why we are working on a tax reform plan, which will make our tax code simpler and fairer for everyone. Our plan will put more money in the pockets of more people so they can better manage their lives — so they can better afford what they need.

Our tax plan would let people keep more of their paycheck. It would mean bigger paychecks, which would grow our economy and result in more jobs. More jobs lead to competition to get workers, and that drives up wages.

After years of stagnant growth, tax relief for every American would be rain for an economy in drought.

The purpose of our tax reform goals is to help folks who are currently struggling to make ends meet.

We want to make sure that small businesses, which employ the majority of the employees in the private sector in Wyoming and are the backbone of our communities, have the opportunity to grow and provide more jobs.

We want hard-working families to have more money in their pockets, higher wages and more job opportunities.

Under the tax reform framework developed by leaders in the Senate, House and the Administration, we could create a larger portion of Americans who pay zero taxes by roughly doubling the standard deduction. Their plan calls for the first $12,000 of income for individuals and $24,000 for couples to be tax-free.

The plan would significantly increase and expand the child tax credit. It calls for repealing the death tax that has hurt so many family farms and ranches.

Other tax relief for hard-working Americans could be included as the committees in the Senate and the House turn the framework into a bill.

While we seek to provide tax cuts and fairness, we also need to make the tax code simpler. Right now, the code is just too long. It is five times the length of the Bible.

Today individuals, families and job creators have to navigate a minefield of deductions and loopholes.

If you want to make sure you are following all those rules, it’s going to take a lot of your time and effort and probably means hiring someone to help.

By simplifying the tax code we could help ensure hard-working Americans aren’t missing available tax relief.

We also hope to change business taxes. And that, too, is about helping folks. If you care about jobs — your job — and if you care about American companies not moving overseas and their ability to compete, then you care about this.

The United States has the fourth highest corporate tax rates in the world. If it weren’t for our high-quality products, we would have a hard time competing.

Fewer sales hurts workers. And we need to encourage companies to bring back their overseas money to increase the number of jobs here at home. We have also seen more and more companies moving their headquarters to countries with lower tax rates.

Lowering our uncommonly high, and uncompetitive, business tax rate would be one of the quickest ways to solve the problem. It’s time we make America a more inviting place to invest, do business and create jobs.

Now I have always been concerned about adding more money to the national debt.

We can’t afford to keep borrowing from future generations to cover our overspending.

And whenever you cut taxes, you risk adding to the deficit because you won’t get as much revenue.

That is why tax cuts need to be designed to encourage as much revenue-generating economic growth as possible. 

And because revenues are only half of our fiscal problems, we have also drafted a budget in conjunction with our tax reform plan that will put us on a path to balance by restraining federal spending, reducing tax burdens and boosting economic growth.

Why tax reform? Because hard-working Americans deserve better — a system that works for everyone, that will promote higher wages, more jobs and business growth in our country and put more money in the pockets of each and every American.