Comprehensive tax reform is important because in the three decades since the last major reform, the tax code has become increasingly convoluted, and it is more complex and uncompetitive than ever as a result.

At the same time, other countries — from industrialized nations to emerging competitors — have reduced their business tax burden to support their own manufacturers, who compete against our manufacturing businesses.

Our elected leaders have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fix the tax code and put American manufacturers on a more competitive footing. Improving the competitive environment for American manufacturers also means protecting U.S. manufacturing jobs, and shoring up the potential growth in manufacturing jobs in the future.

The plan put forward by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, the White House and other leaders in Congress offers a good start: It would reduce the tax burden facing both those big manufacturers as well as small, family businesses. It would encourage investment in new machinery and no longer penalize multigenerational family businesses. At the same time, these proposals promise to make navigating our thicket of a tax code more straightforward for equipment manufacturers.

Those are worthy goals that Congress should advance on an expedient and bipartisan basis.