West Virginia’s Rep. David McKinley: Tax reform necessary, but debt concerns remain

“The last time we had tax reform was 31 years ago,” he said. “The internet was in infancy … trade was different around the world and we didn’t have smartphones. Society has changed, so we needed to change the tax code. … It wasn’t an easy thing to do. It took some heavy lifting to bring it into the 21st century.” America’s corporate tax rate was 35 percent — the highest among industrialized nations, according to McKinley. The reform package passed Thursday drops that to 21 percent. A major problem has been American companies doing business overseas that often kept profits in foreign banks to avoid American taxation, he added.