President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced major tax and regulation cuts, along with the promise of improved rural broadband, in an address at the American Farm Bureau in Nashville, Tennessee yesterday.
Describing US farmers as “just the most incredible people”, Trump announced that he was the first US President to address the American Farm Bureau in over 25 years. He added that he intends to come back next year.
“We’ve lowered tax rates; nearly doubled the standard deduction; and doubled the child tax credit. Under this new law, the typical family of four earning $75,000 will see an income tax cut of more than $2,000 each, slashing their tax bill in half each year,” the president claimed.
Trump highlighted the tax cuts put through Congress in late 2017, stating: “Small and mid-sized businesses will receive massive tax cuts. They’ll be able to deduct 20% of their business income.”
Critics, such as US publication the New York Times, have pointed out that several tax breaks were also wiped out in the recent tax change.
“All American businesses, including American farmers, will be able to deduct 100% of the cost of new equipment in the year you make the investment. You deduct it all in one year, as opposed to over many years.”
Trump stressed that most farmers would be exempt from inheritance tax: “From now on, most family farms and small-business owners will be spared … the deeply unfair estate tax – known as the death tax – so you can keep your farms in the family.”
However, the New York Times has refuted this.
It stated that there were very few farms actually being taxed previously: “In reality, only about 80 small businesses and farms would fall under the estate-tax tent this year, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.”
Regulation cuts
Following what the president described as “relentless intrusion from an army of regulators at the EPA, the FDA, and countless other federal agencies”, Trump claimed that, under his administration, 1,500 planned regulatory actions or assaults have been cancelled or delayed; while “22 regulations have been cut for every one new regulation” so far.
This includes rolling back the Waters of the United States rule – an environmental regulation on water-bodies.
I’m looking forward to working with Congress to pass the Farm Bill, on time, so that it delivers for all of you. And I support a bill that includes crop insurance.
The US President also “took the first step” to expand access to broadband Internet in rural America, signing two presidential orders to deliver “broader and faster, and better Internet coverage”.