It’s time we add tax reform to Trump’s long list of accomplishments

President Trump has put forward a framework for much-needed and long-overdue reform of our tax code.

Right now, we are at a competitive disadvantage for creating jobs and attracting investments crucial to increasing employment.

Small- and medium-sized businesses on Main Street – which do the heavy lifting of hiring Americans and coming up with new products and services – spend too much time and money complying with an overly complicated tax system with few benefits.

{mosads}It’s up to Congress to act on the president’s proposal and make America the best place in the world to earn a living.

The media is casting doubt on whether the president will achieve tax reform, but we shouldn’t trust their skepticism.

They were wrong when they said the president would never win the Republican nomination. They were spectacularly wrong when they said he could not win the general election.

Now they say the administration hasn’t achieved anything, and they are wrong again.

For the nearly two decades I’ve known him, the president has consistently succeeded against the odds, with great instinct and a unique ability to achieve a victory when challenged.

Since he was inaugurated, the economy has added over one million private sector jobs, consumer confidence has risen to the highest level in 13 years, manufacturing hit a 20-year high, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has hit 45 record highs and topped 23,000 for the first time in history.

He has enacted more legislation (he has signed more than 50 bills into law) and signed more executive orders to date than any chief executive in half a century. 

He has made good on his vow to protect American workers by renegotiating NAFTA, withdrawing from the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership and Paris climate accord, and ordering an investigation into China’s theft of U.S. intellectual property.

He has restored integrity and accountability to the veterans administration, cutting wait time and expanding support for the men and women who risked their lives to defend our country.

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MORE STORIES FROM THE HILL

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• Real tax reform a long shot in best-case scenario — this isn’t that

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As promised, the president is restoring national security. He has ended the sequestration of funds for the Defense Department, begun rebuilding our military, and overseen the collapse of ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

The Trump administration has achieved a massive reduction in illegal immigration, arresting nearly 100,000 criminal illegal aliens and deporting over 52,000, a 30 percent increase over the same period last year. Illegal border crossings are down over 41 percent.

He has unshackled America’s energy resources, expediting permits and approvals processes for natural gas terminals, pipelines and coal, oil and gas development.

And those are just some of the accomplishments.

President Trump has set an example of achievement in the face of unprecedented, intransigent opposition.

Candidate Trump laid out a four-pronged plan of tax reform, trade reform, regulatory reform and energy reform to make America great again and put Americans back to work.

He has held up his end of the bargain. 

Now it’s time for every member of Congress – Republican and Democrat – to step up and do the job the American people elected them to do and enact tax reform.

Thomas Hicks, Jr. is chairman of the board of America First Policies. He is a Partner of Hicks Holdings LLC, a private equity firm with interests in manufacturing, energy services and consumer products. He is on the national board of the American Enterprise Institute’s Enterprise Club, and the advisory board of Turning Point USA.