Ways and Means to Hold First Tax-Reform Hearings

WASHINGTON — The House Ways and Means Committee will hold the first of a series of hearings on tax reform on Thursday.

Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., announced the hearing and said any organizations or individuals not scheduled to testify can submit written statements to the panel, which has not yet released the witness list.

“This hearing marks the beginning of a dialogue that the president and the Congress — both Republicans and Democrats — must have with the American people about broad-based tax reform that will allow families to thrive and employers to create jobs,” Camp said.

His remarks came a day after Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the administration is “examining whether we can find the political support for comprehensive tax reform, revenue-neutral … that would improve incentives for investing in the U.S.”

Speaking at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Geithner also said: “You’re going to see the president in the State of the Union and the budget lay out a set of proposals for how we bring our fiscal position back into balance.”

Geithner said President Obama’s two previous budget requests proposed discretionary spending levels equal to those in place during the Reagan administration. “But we have to invest more in things essential to our competitiveness,” he said

The Treasury secretary added that the challenge is to be fair to the middle class while improving the capacity to grow in the future.

He said the administration plans to propose to “spend more wisely and strategically in research and development, in education, in incentives for investment and public infrastructure.”

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