Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Independence Day has always meant something special to me. Fireworks over Four Winds Field. Families gathered in backyards from South Bend to Warsaw. The kind of summer evening that reminds you why you fight for the people back home.
This year, America's 250th birthday comes with something extra worth celebrating: it's also the one-year anniversary of the Working Families Tax Cuts, the largest tax cut in American history for hardworking families, signed into law by President Trump.
And I can't think of a better gift to the American people.
As a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, I had a front-row seat to building this legislation. My job, every step of the way, was making sure Hoosiers weren't an afterthought. That the workers running assembly lines in Elkhart, the parents stretching a paycheck in Mishawaka, and the small business owners in Wabash got a real win out of this bill.
And they are.
The average tax refund is up 11% this year. Over 34 million families received the $2,220 Child Tax Credit. More than 25 million workers claimed no tax on overtime. 97% percent of filers got a tax cut, and 96% of those filers earn under $200,000.
But the raw numbers only tell part of the story. When I'm out at the grocery store, walking a factory floor in Nappanee, or shaking hands after church, people stop me. They tell me their refund was bigger this year. That they caught up on a bill. That they finally had a little left over. These aren't data points, these are real people doing everything they can to provide for their families, and they deserve to feel the relief.
One provision I fought especially hard for is the relief it delivers to manufacturers. Indiana's Second District isn't just part of the nation's manufacturing base, it's the heart of it.
The Working Families Tax Cuts power American reindustrialization through immediate expensing for research and development, full expensing for new capital investments, and full expensing for the construction of new factories. Since the bill became law, companies across the country have announced expansions and broken ground on new facilities. According to the Tax Foundation, these provisions are increasing long-run investment and economic growth, and the manufacturing industry is receiving more tax relief than any other sector.
In May, the economy added 172,000 jobs, beating expert expectations for the third straight month. U.S. manufacturing activity just hit a four-year high. These aren't coincidences. This is the direct result of good policy.
And perhaps the most important thing the Working Families Tax Cuts did was what they prevented. The 2017 tax cuts were set to expire. Without action, American families would have faced the largest tax hike in our nation's history. We made those lower rates permanent. We locked in the doubled standard deduction. A family of four now pays zero federal income tax on their first $35,900 of earnings.
Is there more work to do? There always is.
But on America's 250th birthday, and on the one-year anniversary of the Working Families Tax Cuts becoming law, this is exactly the kind of gift the American people deserve: more of their own hard-earned money back in their pockets and a future as bright as the one our Founders imagined 250 years ago.
