On Friday, January 12, Members of CARW’s LDC had the opportunity to attend a WisPol luncheon with Speaker Paul Ryan at UWM. The focus was on the recently passed tax reform. The program covered much more than that including the government shutdown, his retirement and his work with the President.
A few take-aways from the program:
- Tax Reform: Ryan suggested that the tax reform bill will become more popular as people use it. He admitted that Wisconsin had fared well as it pertained to SALT (state and local tax) deduction with a cap of $10,000. This hurts some States but Wisconsin homeowners will now stop cross-subsidizing for states who are not fiscally responsible in setting their deductions. He suggested that healthcare costs will continue to be our biggest problem and that repatriation is our biggest opportunity.
- Talent: In a recurring theme both nationally and Statewide, Speaker Ryan emphasized that focusing on talent will be our country’s next focus. Employers will need to be increasingly involved in workforce training which has already begun in many places. Foxconn has brought this imperative to light in Wisconsin.
- 2018 Midterm Elections: History, not politics, suggest that the party of the president will lose 32 seats in the house (on average) this election cycle. There are many congressmen retiring or not running for re-election for many reasons including the fact that some republican leaders are reaching term-limits for their leadership roles.
- Immigration Reform: The current rules for immigration expire on March 5, 2018, however the reforms are being discussed right now. Ryan believes that nothing will happen without bipartisan support and that anything proposed must be sustainable, secure and comprehensive.
- Bipartisan work: Ryan commented that he fells most of the work he is involved with is done in a bipartisan fashion – in fact 80% of bills passed are done with bipartisan support. The issues receiving attention are those that are of course not bipartisan and controversial.
- Government Shutdown: (pending at the time of the event), Paul Ryan, as of January 12, felt that there would be no long-term budget deal reached by January 19th, but rather was confident that the House would pass a ‘continuing resolution’, or short-term funding bill. He commented that there was much disagreement about over immigration and although the budget and immigration reform are not legislatively tied, the reforms would be used as leverage. At risk if the government does shut down is military spending and disaster relief.
Overall, the meeting was very informative and positive. Speaker Ryan said he thinks there has been great progress made yet there remains a lot of work to do.
If you have interest in participating in opportunities such as this, please contact Tracy at tracy@carw.com