Trump touts tax plan in 'Made in USA' speech

Sept. 29 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump continued his campaign to sell his tax proposal to the American people Friday with a speech to the National Association of Manufacturers.

The president said that unlike the current tax code, which "punishes companies for doing business in the United States," his new plan would encourage companies to stay in the United States and hire American workers.

"We will cut taxes on American businesses to restore our competitive edge and create more jobs and higher wages for the American worker," Trump said.

Trump unveiled the Republican-backed tax reform plan on Wednesday, which aims to scale back the existing seven individual tax brackets to three -- 12, 25, and 35 percent. For businesses, the plan would cut the tax rate from 35 to 20 percent.

National Association of Manufacturers CEO Jay Timmons said he is enthusiastic about the plan.

"Manufacturers in America have never been as enthusiastic or as optimistic about their future as they are this year, and that is because of the huge opportunity we have to get tax reform done," he said.

Trump also focused on his push to limit regulations, which he said "hamstring your companies and undermine your ability to compete."

"To further unleash American enterprise, we have taken unprecedented steps to remove job-killing regulations that sap the energy, creativity, and dynamism from our country," Trump said. "We need some regulations, but we don't need 35 regulations to take care of one item. We don't need to go through nine different agencies to get something taken off."