The Washington Examiner is examining tax policy by speaking to members of Congress and economics experts to answer voters’ questions about the One Big Beautiful Bill Act making its way through the Senate.
Since the not-so-beautiful breakup between Elon Musk and Donald Trump, people need a little bit more convincing to support the president’s “one big, beautiful bill.” The Washington Examiner spoke exclusively with Kip Eideberg, the senior vice president of government and industry relations at the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, about the importance of the reconciliation bill to the manufacturing industry.
Eideberg said the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act allowed equipment manufacturers to experience record investment, job creation, and wage growth.
“Unfortunately, a lot of those provisions have either expired or are expiring this year,” Eideberg said. “If we want to supercharge our economy and if we want to provide that rocket fuel that both President Trump and Elon Musk have talked about, then we do need Congress to move expeditiously to renew and strengthen those tax provisions.”
Key priorities for the manufacturing industry include protecting the 21% corporate tax rate, increasing the pass-through deduction, reviving capital equipment expensing, and incentivizing domestic research and development.
Giving out a corporate tax rate and subsidizing equipment for farming, which is already a billion-dollar industry, sounds a bit like giving tax cuts to the 1% to the average person. However, Eideberg defended these subsidies, saying they are in line with the Trump administration’s priorities.
“Yes, these are incentives, but they do help the equipment manufacturing industry, do what we do best, which is invest in our communities, grow our businesses, and create more family-sustaining jobs in America,” Eideberg said. “And if we can do that, that helps everyone, that helps the farmers, it helps the small towns in rural communities around the country. When it comes to a budget, when it comes to priorities, this is going to supercharge the economy.”
Eideberg said there are always ways Congress can improve the tax code to make U.S. companies more competitive in the global marketplace.
“If you’re building tractors in Iowa, or combines in Nebraska, or excavators in South Carolina, you’re competing with companies around the world,” Eideberg said. “We want to make sure we build the best possible products here in America so we can sell them to customers around the world, and outcompete our competitors. We create more jobs here, but we can only do that if we have a tax code wired for growth.”
Eideberg said he hopes Congress will act expeditiously and get the bill passed by the August recess to maintain domestic manufacturing competitiveness and create jobs.