WASHINGTON, D.C. (KELO.com) -- U.S. Representative Kristi Noem says a chance meeting with a woman in a South Dakota grocery store stuck with her as she worked on the House tax reform package announced Thursday.
The woman complained about having trouble making ends meet.
"She was in the forefront of my mind as we worked on the details of this package - the lower rates for everybody, the simplicity, the mortgage interest rate deduction, the family tax credit.."
As member of the House Ways and Means Committee that put the proposed package together, Noem played a prominent part in the big announcement on Capitol Hill.
The tax reform plan also includes the eventual death of the estate tax and Noem got personal again, sharing the oft-repeated story about what happened when her farmer father suddenly died when she was just a teenager.
"I could not believe that the federal government would come to a family that had already paid taxes on all that income and say that because you had a tragedy, now you have to pay again."
This biggest reform package in decades - $1.5 Trillion - is supposed to lower most individual and business tax rates and make doing your taxes so simple that you could use a form the size of a post card. House Speaker Paul Ryan held up a post card for emphasis, during Thursday's announcement.