The Buckeye State is making progress for taxpayers, with some tax cuts, regulatory reform, and more. While setting some good examples, the state's Medicaid expansion and rising spending levels aren't examples other states want to follow. Buckeye Institute's Greg Lawson joins the podcast to talk about all this and more.

President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule today repealing the Obama Administration's 2015 Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, an overreaching federal regulation which defined what natural features are considered federal waters. The new rule is projected to deliver $1.3 billion in regulatory savings and is in line with President Trump’s Executive Order directing the EPA to review and possibly replace the Obama administration’s definition.

The previous administration’s regulation went beyond the intended purpose of the law and amounted to a power grab designed to place control in the hands of the government over private landowners and developers.

Under the Obama rule, regulation expanded to include ephemeral features in its definition of federal water, meaning land that only temporarily held water could be regulated as federal water if the water eventually flowed into a navigable water. Expanding the scope of the definition gave the federal government greater control in permitting in certain activities such as land development.

Today’s action restores the regulatory text prior to the Obama administration’s 2015 rule and sets the table for the Trump EPA to issue a second, still forthcoming, rule intended to provide states greater flexibility and local control.

“Today’s action is “Step 1” of our response to the president’s executive order. Step 1 repeals the 2015 rule and recodifies the longstanding and familiar regulatory text that existed previously. It also sets the stage for “Step 2” – our new proposed “waters of the United States” definition,” EPA Administrator Wheeler explained in an op-ed released today.

Americans for Tax Reform applauds President Trump and Administrator Wheeler for taking a crucial first step towards revising the Obama Administration’s overreaching definition of federal waters. ATR also encourages the administration to finalize its Step 2 rule and provide landowners greater certainty regarding what is, and what is not, a federal water.

Americans for Tax Reform Communications Fellow Adam Sabes wrote an op-Ed in The Washington Times, arguing that Democrats have one message, which is higher taxes on Americans.

Read his op-Ed below:

Like your tax cut? If a Democrat is elected as our next president, don’t expect that to last long. Top Democrats running for president have vowed to repeal the entire Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) passed in 2017, which would set back millions of middle-income Americans.

Americans for Tax Reform has recorded 28 occasions on which Democratic presidential candidates have threatened to eliminate the TCJA, which has lowered taxes for every income level in every congressional district.

It’s not just the TCJA, either. Democrats running for president have also proposed increasing the corporate tax rate, increasing the capital gains tax, imposing a carbon tax, gun tax, wealth tax, payroll tax increase, a middle-class tax increase to pay for “Medicare for All,” as well as various financial transaction taxes.

If Democrats succeeded with their promise to repeal the TCJA, for starters, a family of four earning the median income of $73,000 would see a $2,000 tax increase, and millions of households would see their standard deduction slashed in half.

A single parent with one child making a $41,000 annual income would see a tax increase of $1,300. Small businesses would suffer by a repeal of the TCJA and see a tax increase due to the 20 percent deduction for small business income being taken away.

Think that’s bad enough? This is just a small portion of the negative impacts that a repeal of the TCJA would have. 

Top Democratic candidates such as former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris have endorsed a corporate tax increase, which would put the United States at the highest corporate income tax rate in the developed world, and would directly cause utility bills to go up in all 50 states.

Mr. Biden and Sen. Amy Klobuchar both support an increase in the capital gains tax, which would ultimately limit Americans’ ability to build a nest egg in addition to hurting the value of their houses, farms and businesses.

Most Democrats running for president also support Medicare for All, which its architect, Sen. Bernie Sanders, admits that the middle class is “going to pay more in taxes,” in order to pay for its $36 trillion price tag.

Just last month, Sen. Elizabeth Warren proposed a national gun tax, which would place a 30 percent federal excise tax on rifles and handguns, in addition to a 50 percent federal excise tax on ammunition. She has also proposed a wealth tax which has been described by The Washington Post editorial board as having a “certain authoritarian odor.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Cory Booker, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former Congressman John Delaney have all proposed a carbon tax, which would require a large bureaucracy to implement. 

The carbon tax has been proven to be a major burden in other countries, such as Canada, where in one school district, the tax forced 400 kids off the school bus program in order to pay for the massive $3.3 million price tag of the school district’s carbon tax costs.

While Democrats claim the TCJA didn’t help middle-income Americans, even the mainstream media has called them out on that lie.

The New York Times flatly stated in an article that “Most people got a tax cut.”

Proposing more and more taxes may prove to be effective in a Democratic primary where voters are hungry for more government control, but will ultimately fail when put before the rest of America.

“Ending the inflation tax on capital gains has broad and deep support. White House economists, congressional Republicans, free market groups and the business community – U.S. Chamber, NFIB, and groups from all 50 states – will continue to push this initiative forward and get it enacted before the 2020 election.

It is wrong for the government to tax inflation. Ending the inflation tax will help create jobs and raise wages. ATR will continue to highlight the tens of millions of Americans who will benefit directly from ending the inflation tax, many of whom live in Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

Good policy is good politics.”