NY Congressman at White House on tax reform future

“Engaging in the dialogue early means we’re going to have better policy for the people back home," New York Congressman Tom Reed said.

Reed (R-NY-23) was in meetings at the White House Thursday with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin along with lawmakers the House Ways and Means committee, which Reed is a member of. It’s all part of a bigger discussion on tax reform and how they plan to fix it.

“It’s about bringing all the powers to be so to speak in one room and make sure we’re working as much as we possibly can together and off the same sheet of music," Reed said.

Reed is helping lead the tax reform issue in the House. It has to start there before it can move to the senate. He said there are plenty of pros of the new plan for people in the Southern Tier, especially for small business owners.

“Going from the individual code down to that 25% percent rate, right there there’s some huge wins right there," Reed added.

Reed said the Presidents’ plan will help the working class. It could lower taxes, raise wages and create better paying jobs, but that’s not what others are seeing.

“This is a tax plan that is all about helping the millionaires, billionaires and wealthy corporations," Harry Stein with the Center for American Progress said.

Stein said the proposal tax plan would hurt lower and middle income people. He added that it wouldn’t help small business, but rather big corporations. Stein said its’ states like New York that would be hit the hardest by reform.

“You’re going to have a lot of New Yorkers who itemize their taxes paying higher taxes and they’re going to be paying higher taxes to pay for a huge tax cut for multinational corporations this is terrible deal," he added.

Reed called the Center for American Progress claims, 'hogwash.' He said that the proposal isn’t even in the final format to make those claims. Reed adds they’ll continue to build off the framework until they can get it done. He hopes that’s before the New Year.