McHenry Touts Tax Cut and Expresses Confidence in Agenda for the Coming Year

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry (NC-10) appeared before a lunch meeting of The Ripon Society yesterday afternoon to discuss some of the key achievements of the last year in Congress, and what he expects to be on the agenda in the months ahead.

McHenry serves as Chief Deputy Majority Whip.  Elected to the House in 2004 and a member of the House Leadership since 2014, he opened his remarks by talking about the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.  Although the landmark measure was just signed into law before the holiday, McHenry said Americans will begin feeling the effects in the next few weeks.

“Once people’s paychecks change in February, they will start to see the benefits,” the North Carolina lawmaker stated. “And once people receive the benefits that are coming from corporations reinvesting in their workforce, that economic benefit will actually spur them to feel more positively about tax reform.  We believe we got the fundamentals right so that economic growth will be stronger, investment will be stronger, and wage growth will start to materialize in a substantive way.”

McHenry further noted that – despite reports to the contrary — the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was not the only accomplishment in Washington last year.

“Given the massive amount of drama, the slow start in hiring, and the slow start of getting appointments through the Senate,” he said, “you still have major wins of getting Gorsuch on the Supreme Court and getting more judges appointed in a first year than any President in a couple of generations has gotten.  That is a significant score for this first year. We also have a piece of economic policy that we can talk about that will benefit the economy. That is far better than what my Democrat colleagues could say one year into President Obama’s term.”

In addition to serving as Chief Deputy Whip, McHenry also serves as Vice Chairman of the Financial Services Committee.  He previously served as a member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.  In these and other roles, he has developed a reputation as a common sense consensus builder who not only stays true to his conservative principles, but is not afraid to work across the aisle to get things done.

Following his remarks, McHenry took several questions from the crowd of over 100 who were in attendance, including one question about the legislative agenda in the months ahead, and the possibility that Congress will complete some of last year’s work that had yet to be done.

“This first quarter will be an active one and much more in keeping with what a normal November and Decembers have looked like for the last six years,” he declared. “The president will get his wall funding, we will fix immigration in a way that only this President could fix immigration, and we’ll clear the logjam so you can have some regular order business take place.”

To view McHenry’s remarks before The Ripon Society lunch discussion yesterday afternoon, please click on the link below:

The Ripon Society is a public policy organization that was founded in 1962 and takes its name from the town where the Republican Party was born in 1854 – Ripon, Wisconsin. One of the main goals of The Ripon Society is to promote the ideas and principles that have made America great and contributed to the GOP’s success. These ideas include keeping our nation secure, keeping taxes low and having a federal government that is smaller, smarter and more accountable to the people.