At the Black Hills Forum and Press Club lunch on Friday, South Dakota Congresswoman Kristi Noem insisted that change is a good thing.
That’s why she says she left the House Ag committee in favor of a group that looks at the country’s tax code. It’s an issue her challenger has hammered the incumbent on.
Representative Kristi Noem is up for re-election this November. Her challenger, Paula Hawks, criticized Noem’s decision to leave the House Ag committee for Ways and Means.
Noem says after crafting the Farm Bill in 2014 she moved on to the next challenge.
As a member of the Ways and Means committee, Noem says she can better represent South Dakota.
“People describe the committee as the committee that has the most ways it can be mean… And then that’s because it has jurisdiction over tax policy, trade policy, Medicare and social security go through that committee. Also a lot of our entitlement programs, our poverty programs, a lot of the programs that currently impact our way of life go through this committee. You know, a vast majority of what’s in the agenda in the house right now is going through that committee.”
Noem says the committee is working to simplify the country’s tax code.
She says it’s the most exciting and challenging tax code reform to come out of Congress in several decades…
“The vast majority of American’s, if this were implemented and signed into law, would pay their taxes on a postcard,” Noem added. “So, it lowers the corporate income tax rate, and it lowers it so that we are again competitive at a 20 percent rate from the 33 percent that it’s at today. What most people don’t know is that we have the highest corporate income tax rate in the world. So, when you hear conversations about us losing companies to overseas, that’s because other countries have done tax reform in the last several years, the last 10 to 15 years, and America hasn’t.”
Noem’s challenger Paula Hawks contends Noem left the state’s largest industry hanging. Hawks is scheduled to appear at next month’s Black Hills Forum and Press Club luncheon on September 16.
To hear Noem’s full conversation at the Black Hills Forum and Press Club, click play below. We will post the full forum of Paula Hawks scheduled to speak at the same event next month.