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President Trump laid out his tax priorities—including preserving the pro-growth provisions of 2017 tax reform—in a lengthy White House meeting with Republican legislators yesterday (Bloomberg). 
 
What’s going on: “Republicans are … aiming to renew Trump’s signature 2017 tax cut law, including tax breaks for individuals and small businesses, which are set to expire” on Jan. 1, 2026.  

• “Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said administration officials were ‘just starting the process now’ on tax policy, calling it a ‘priority’ during an interview with Saleha Mohsin on Bloomberg Television Thursday. ‘President Trump will give us his priorities, but I can tell you the real priority is fixing this affordability crisis for the American people,’ he added.”  
• The meeting came a day after the Senate GOP announced a plan that would “delay action on tax cuts until Congress passes a second budget reconciliation package.” House Speaker Mike Johnson has said Republicans will remain unified with a one-bill approach.  

The NAM’s view: “We’re at a point right now where those [2017] tax reforms need to be renewed, and if they’re not renewed, that is going to really drive up costs for manufacturers,” NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons said in an interview with Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power” on Wednesday. 

• The NAM has been leading the campaign to save these tax provisions, hosting a press conference on Capitol Hill last month for the release of its groundbreaking study. The event was attended by Speaker Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID), several of whom spoke at the event.

​​​​ The cost of inaction: If Congress fails to act, the consequences will be dire, according to a recent NAM study by EY, which Timmons cited during his interview. 

• “If this doesn’t get done, we’re going to lose 6 million jobs in this country and I don’t think anybody wants that,” Timmons continued, referring to one of the study’s most critical findings. And “the sooner it gets done, the better, because manufacturers have to plan. If this gets done at the end of the year, you are delaying for another year our ability to plan for investment and job creation here in this country.”  
• Other sobering takeaways from the study: In the absence of the preservation of crucial tax-reform measures, U.S. GDP will be reduced by $1.1 trillion and approximately $540 billion in employee wages will be lost. 

A winning corporate tax rate: It’s also vital, Timmons went on, that the president’s legislative agenda includes maintaining or even lowering the U.S. corporate tax rate. 

• “Let’s make sure that we keep our lower tax rates on corporate America in place, or even lower [them], so that we can compete with the rest of the world,” Timmons told show hosts Kailey Leinz and Joe Mathieu.
• “Let’s make sure that small manufacturers have access to that same low rate, and let’s make sure we have the research-and-development credit and interest deductibility and all the things that have already expired. There are so many good things there. We just got to make sure that we get it done.”