As we celebrate Labor Day, we are reminded of the inherent dignity of work and the American worker. In America, we honor grit. We honor determination. We honor craftsmanship. And we honor the men and women who turn dreams into reality with their own two hands. 

Earlier this year, I traveled to Wisconsin to sign the Buy American and Hire American executive order. With that action, we sent a powerful signal to the world that we are going to defend our workers, protect our jobs and put America first.

Today, the hopes and dreams of American workers and their families remain a top priority for my administration. That is why we are launching efforts to reduce the crushing tax burden that is harming our companies and our workers.

Our self-destructive tax code costs Americans millions of jobs, trillions of dollars and billions of hours spent on compliance and paperwork. 

To fix this, we have made the foundation of our job creation agenda fundamentally reforming our tax code for the first time in more than 30 years. I want to work with Congress on a plan that is pro-growth, pro-jobs, pro-worker and pro-American.

Our plan will dramatically reduce income taxes for American workers and families. It will nearly double the standard deduction to help families get ahead. It will make our complex tax code more simple and fair. It will put money back into the pockets of the people who earned it. And it will bring back American jobs by making our businesses competitive once again. 

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan led the effort to make America the most competitive nation in the world by cutting our business tax rate to 34%, well below the average rate of other developed nations at the time. It worked. Our economy boomed, the middle class thrived and median family income increased.

But our economic competitors did not sit still. They saw what we did and started lowering their business tax rates, too. Over the past 30 years, the average business tax rate among developed nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) fell from 45% to less than 24%.

Instead of remaining competitive over the same period, we actually raised our rate to 35%. When combined with state and local taxes, American businesses today are effectively taxed at 39%. 

We have gone from a business tax rate that is lower than our economic competitors to one that is more than 60% higher.

The United States is now behind nations such as France, Germany, Canada, Ireland, Japan, Mexico and South Korea. We are dead last.