{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://harris.house.gov/media/in-the-news/andy-harris-discusses-tax-reform-health-care", "Andy Harris Discusses Tax Reform, Health Care", "2017-08-14", "2017", "2017-08", "Republican", "House", "MD", "Andy Harris", "H001052", "harris.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "CAMBRIDGE \u2014 The Cambridge Rotary Club hosted U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, R-1st, Thursday, Aug. 10, during his visit to the county.\nHarris discussed several topics, including tax reform, health care and foreign policy. He said he believes President Donald Trump will unite the country and help the country grow by packaging several key reforms together in a \u201cBig Deal\u201d to allow for greater bipartisan support so everyone gets something that will benefit them.\nHe said one way to help the Eastern Shore economy grow would be to lower the corporate tax rate. He said the Eastern Shore would be the perfect location for world-class manufacturing facilities because the area has a highly skilled workforce and reasonable cost of living.\n\u201cYou won\u2019t do that until you get our corporate tax rate policy right,\u201d Harris said. \u201cOur corporate tax rate is 35 percent, the highest among western nations. We are competing with Ireland, where the corporate tax rate is 13 percent.\u201d\nHe said Google uses Ireland to post its profits because of the country\u2019s lower tax rate compared to posting the profits in California.\n\u201cThere is bipartisan agreement to fix this,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we are going to get there.\u201d\nAnother business topic Harris discussed was the tax policy difference between Pass-Through Entities and C corps.\nHe said Pass-Through Entities are sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLCs and S corporations, which are used by many small businesses, while C corps are separate taxable entities. He said three years ago, the tax rate for Pass-Through Entities surpassed C corps.\n\u201cYou are actually punished if you are a sole proprietor and you choose not to have a corporation,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is not right. We should equalize those two. We have to tackle that this fall. The president wants to make America open for business again. We have to attract businesses back to the United States. We are going to do that.\u201d\nOn the health care front, Harris said the topic continues to be a huge issue in Congress. He said before the Affordable Care Act, more than 40 million Americans were uninsured, and something had to change. He said the change, though, needs to be fixed because it did not work and is expensive.\nHe believes a single-payer system is not the answer.\n\u201cThe only way those systems work to save money is you tell people here is the person you are going to see, and this is when you are going to see them, and if you need something, you are going to wait in line,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is not the way Americans are. Americans just don\u2019t accept that.\u201d\nHarris said the solution should be to drastically cut the profit cap for the insurance companies from the current level of 20 percent.\n\u201cHonestly, it should be just several percent,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat the president wants to do, and I agree with him, is you allow larger associations, as well.\n\u201cYou want to assemble people into large pools that can self insure. Then you are not depending upon the insurance company. When the insurance company assembles the pool, then their profits are larger.\u201d\nHe said purchasing in other states would be helpful because it allows for larger pools.\n\u201cThe president strongly agrees in a multi-state market,\u201d he said.\nOn the foreign policy front, with North Korea and Russian in the news each day, Harris believes America showing strength is vital.\n\u201cI do believe you achieve peace through strength in this world,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that is the way the world works. There are a lot of bullies in the world.\n\u201cThey really only respond to one thing, and that is strength. That is how we won the Cold War. That is how we are going to prevail now.\u201d\nHarris said President Barack Obama experimented with the alternative, the diplomatic way, which included about 20 percent less spending for the military, but he believes the diplomatic way did not work.\n\u201cWorld peace is incredible important for our economy because we are the largest economy in the world,\u201d he said. \u201cWe depend upon free trade throughout the world to keep our economy going. Free trade doesn\u2019t occur when you don\u2019t have peace in the world. We are seeing some of that now in the South China Sea.\n\u201cI think this president is going to have the right balance. You speak softly, but you\u2019ve got to carry the big stick.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://harris.house.gov/media/in-the-news/andy-harris-discusses-tax-reform-health-care"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9651249274611473, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}