House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady added that “my guess is most lawmakers” are finding more public support for tax changes than some polls show. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Brady says polls are wrong on tax reform

House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady on Tuesday dismissed polls showing lukewarm public support for tax reform.

“I don’t know what those polls, how they’re determined. But in the town halls, the roundtables I make, boy, Americans are starved, they’re hungry for something better than what we have in the tax code today,” the Texas Republican said on CNBC’s "SquawkBox." “Look, they’re tired of watching our American companies and jobs and research move overseas. They’re tired of their young people getting out of school with very little prospects for good paying jobs. They know something needs to be fixed.”


Brady added that “my guess is most lawmakers” are finding more public support for tax changes than some polls show.

In a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll in July, 43 percent of voters said tax reform should be a “top priority” for Congress, up from 35 percent in May.

Republican lawmakers left for Congress’ August recess armed with talking points on tax reform to use in their meetings with constituents. Conservative interest groups are pouring money into pro-reform advertising and grass-roots mobilization. President Donald Trump was also expected to talk up tax reform this month, but so far has been more focused on repealing Obamacare.

But Brady said, “My sense of President Trump, he’s all in on tax reform.”

Brady also dismissed a question about Trump’s low approval ratings possibly encouraging GOP lawmakers to be uncooperative on tax reform.

“I don’t think any lawmaker believes it helps their reelection chance to miss the opportunity to fix this broken tax code,” Brady said.