Congress should skip August recess, focus on tax reform, health care: Rep. Biggs

Rep. Andy Biggs on Sunday said Congress should work through its scheduled August recess and focus on passing critical legislation.

Biggs, R-Ariz., a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said it’s time for his fellow Republicans to use the recess time to do meaningful work and not rush the legislative process.

“We are trying to build up the avalanche of people who feel this way, not just in the Congress, but around the country,” said Biggs, in an interview with Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.”

“We have an obligation to get these things done; let’s get a good work product done and that may take some time.”

The August recess is approaching and congressional Republicans are struggling to pass promised legislation before the break.

With House in-fighting and prominent Republicans opposing the health care bill, passing of any legislation before the summer vacation does not look promising.

Congress has just 15 working days left before the recess begins.

Congressional Republicans have promised bills on tax reform, health care and the passing of the budget before the end of this year.

“There’s a whole lot of people that promised [ObamaCare] repeal and when we could get a president to sign that, turns out they didn’t really mean it so much,” said Biggs, who is a member of the House Freedom Caucus. “So we’re in there fighting back and forth trying to get the best.”

Biggs noted that there are differences in the party among the health care bill and he says the bill is not likely to get any support from across the aisle. However, he does believe that some Democrats may budge on tax reform, especially those in competitive districts.

“Some of these folks come from real competitive districts and they want to see tax rates go down on middle class families and that will be part of the tax reform package,” Biggs said. “When that happens, I think you might be able to get some of them to cross the barrier there and get something done.”

In terms of tax reform, Biggs says the GOP is focused on two main promises: getting the corporate tax rate down and compressing the tax brackets for individuals.

He says the party is united on trying for a 15 percent corporate tax rate, which President Trump has promised, and they are focused on reducing taxes for individuals. Even with the 15 percent corporate tax rate, Biggs noted that the border adjustment tax will not be necessary make up ground.

“I like the president’s number of 15 [percent], that’s the number I heard all along, and if you can get down to 15 [percent] that will gin up the economy very quickly and that will be very positive,” he said. “...The border adjustment tax is really in trouble right now, there is not a lot of support for that. The reality is, we know if you are a supply sider, reduction in the tax rate in some of the taxes, such as the corporate rate, that will cause capital flow into the economy and create jobs, spin the dollars to the effect that the revenue will actually increase. I believe it is going to offset that over 10 years. There are those who say no, but I believe that that’s the case.”