In the face of growing competition from China and other geopolitical rivals, the United States needs to pursue policies that benefit American industries and consumers, and that do not drive the further offshoring of businesses vital to economic health, according to Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.).
From this point of view, one of the most urgent tasks at hand is to review the U.S. tax code and what pending changes will mean.
“The number one thing we have to do is take a look at our tax code. Most people don’t understand that the tax cut and the JOBS Act—the Trump tax cuts, if you will—are going to start slowly expiring over the next several years. The only thing that’s going to do is actually incentivize business to go overseas even more, not staying in the United States,” Rep. Donalds told EpochTV’s “China Insider” program at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, on Feb. 25.
The priority is not just to stop the outsourcing and offshoring, but to work to bring manufacturing back to the United States and to become energy-efficient, the congressman added. It is not possible to run an economy on green energy alone, he said.
In Donalds’s view, a series of poor decisions over the last 30 years have made it easier for corporations to do their manufacturing in China and other foreign countries. The issue is not about forgoing relationships with overseas suppliers, per se, but rather, the need to choose these partners with care.
“I’m not saying that everything has to come back to the United States, but that there are key things that have to come back,” he said, citing the production of pharmaceuticals and rare earth minerals as critical industries that should be reshored.
While much of the media coverage of Beijing and the CCP focuses on its military and geostrategic ambitions, the congressman noted that it is important to remember that the CCP also advances its sweeping goals through a highly aggressive economic and trade agenda.
“They want to be the dominant power in the world, not just military, but economically. The current economic and fiscal policies in the United State only help [the CCP], it doesn’t slow them down,” Donalds said.
