WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Among the biggest winners with today's budget bill are corporations and small businesses.

The bill would make permanent the tax breaks from President Trump's first term, as well as expanding provisions on company expenses and itemizations.

Manufacturers in particular are supportive of the bill.

Companies could fully and immediately deduct the cost of new manufacturing plants.

It also has incentives for producing semiconductors.

So, for a business perspective on all of this, I'm joined by Jay Timmons.

He's the president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers.

Jay Timmons, thank you so much for being here.

In this bill, how vital was the -- making the 2017 tax cuts permanent?

How much of that was a factor for you all?

JAY TIMMONS, President and CEO, National Association of Manufacturers: Honestly, William, it was huge.

Look, in 2017, I think we had a great victory for manufacturing in America, but it was a temporary victory.

We knew all along that, especially for small manufacturers, who are so critical to the supply chain for manufacturers, larger manufacturers, we really only had a victory that would last until 2025.

And, in fact, some provisions in that bill, as you know, interest deductibility, full expensing, research and development credits, those already expired.

So, the big challenge was making sure that the pass-through deduction for small businesses did not expire at the end of this year.

It would have cost six million jobs, one million of those in manufacturing, and about a $1.1 trillion hit to our economy.

But I think kind of the unsung good news of this bill is that the corporate rate didn't change.

Even just a few weeks ago, there were folks talking about, well, maybe we should put a few more points on the board on the corporate side.

That's not a good message for manufacturers who we would like to invest in their new plants and equipment here in this country.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: When it comes to different manufacturing sectors, who is most likely to benefit?

I mean, which sectors are most likely to be able to pounce on this and do something with it?

JAY TIMMONS: Well, look, I think -- frankly, I think all manufacturing will benefit from this.

I think all businesses will benefit.

And then the bottom line is, America will benefit because you will have more investment, you will have more jobs, you will have higher wages.

That leads to more dollars into the U.S. treasury, so that Congress has more dollars to disburse for programs that are necessary.

But if I think about some of our members at the NAM, some of our 13,000 members, the certainty that it provides, that this bill provides, especially for small manufacturers, those folks that are part of the supply chain, that is really critical, because I have heard from so many over the years that they really want to make investments, but they're just a little concerned that the tax policies weren't going to be renewed, or that the regulatory regime was going to be too expensive for them.

So all of those small businesses, I think, will benefit greatly.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Most analyses of this bill indicate that it will drive up the national debt by more than $3 trillion.

Won't that drag on the federal budget and the government's ability to invest counter some of the positive things that you're describing here?

JAY TIMMONS: So, look, I happen to be somebody who is concerned about the deficit, right?

And I firmly believe, William, that the most important thing that any government can do, whether that's the federal government, the state government, local government, is you have to have the right tax policies in place that encourage growth in the economy.

And I understand all of the negative back-and-forth on the bill from folks who didn't like some of the spending provisions.

But this is really the first time that I have seen in my lifetime that we have actually gotten it right on the growth side of the equation.

So if you think of the Reagan tax cuts, and those were heralded to a great degree, and they were very welcome at the time, but they weren't targeted specifically for growth.

They were targeted more toward providing more toward providing more dollars in the pockets of consumers, not a bad thing, by the way, but that's not necessarily growth-oriented.

The same thing happened in the Bush tax cuts earlier in this century.

This is the first time that these tax cuts have been really specifically designed to supercharge, the president said, rocket fuel at our board meeting in 2017.

I actually think he was right, to supercharge the American economy.

And what that does is that leads, again, to more investment, jobs, and tax revenue to hopefully mitigate some of those deficit concerns in the future.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, that is Jay Timmons, the president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers.

Thank you so much for being here.

JAY TIMMONS: Great to be here.