President Donald J. Trump will be giving the State of the Union address tonight, and one of his featured guests has benefited greatly from the Opportunity Zones made possible by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
According to Politico:
“One of the president’s guests for the speech, the senior administration official noted, would be Tony Rankins — a veteran of the war in Afghanistan who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and became addicted to drugs, before getting clean and eventually getting a job in one of the Opportunity Zones created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in Cincinnati.
Rankins’ hometown paper, the Cincinnati Enquirer, has more on him and his job with R Investments, described as a Denver company that does development work in Cincinnati and trained Rankins in carpentry and other skills.”
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s Opportunity Zones help low income areas, as noted by HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson:
In pursuit of that bold ideal, Opportunity Zones were created under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to stimulate economic development and job creation, by incentivizing long-term investments in low-income neighborhoods.
Few programs in modern American history have the potential to touch the lives of so many people as powerfully as Opportunity Zones, which are now home to approximately 31.3 million Americans in all 50 states and the District of Columbia — or roughly 10% of the country. An additional 3.7 million people reside in Opportunity Zones in five U.S. territories.
Rankins said in a White House press release that he is excited to share his story on how the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act enabled him to get a new job and get off the streets, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
“I’m honored and humbled beyond words to be invited to this wonderful and powerful event,” Rankins said in a White House release. “To be able to share my story as to how I was empowered to rise from being homeless and facing addictions to the greatness that awaits every man for a higher purpose in our great country.”
ATR has collected over 900 in-their-own-words examples of how the Trump tax cuts have helped Americans.