Smith Questions Secretary Lew on President Obama’s Budget Plan

Congressman Adrian Smith (R-NE) participated today in a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget proposal. In the hearing, Smith raised concerns to U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew about potential compliance challenges for farmers, ranchers and business owners in the administration’s proposal to add additional capital gains taxes to the estate tax.

Click here for video of Congressman Smith’s exchange with Secretary Lew.

“President Obama’s tax-and-spend policies are stunting our nation’s economic growth and heaping more regulations onto an already burdensome tax code,” said Congressman Smith. “The budget released yesterday by President Obama never balances but calls for $2.1 trillion in new taxes and $8.5 trillion in new debt. This comes from an administration which has already raised taxes on hardworking Americans by $1.7 trillion and increased the national debt by $7.5 trillion.

"When I spoke with Secretary Lew about the tax code in 2013, he said what ‘we have universal agreement on is it is just too complicated.’ However, as I outlined to him today, many of the policies in President Obama’s budget proposal make the tax code more complicated. I will work with my colleagues in the House on a balanced budget plan and simplified tax code to encourage economic growth.”