Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush said Wednesday his tax plan would help fuel growth by empowering Americans and creating an environment for investment.
The former Florida governor will unveil the plan later Wednesday. He previewed the agenda in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Tuesday, saying he would lower taxes, simplify the tax code and eliminate "lobbyist-created" loopholes.
"I think we need to grow at a far faster rate than we're growing today. Two percent is fine for people who have already made it, particularly with our monetary policy, but it's putting a lid on people's aspirations," Bush told CNBC's "Squawk Box." "A high-growth strategy requires first and foremost a dramatic reform of our tax code."
Bush is campaigning on the premise that with the right policies, the United States economy can grow at 4 percent.
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Bush said he would simplify the personal tax rates to 10, 25 and 28 percent and double the exclusion so that many low-income earners won't pay taxes at all.
"That system for personal taxes will create I think an environment where people will be saving more," he said. "All people will get a tax cut of some kind."
Bush said the plan would achieve "dramatic economic effects" by reducing corporate tax rates from 35 percent to 20 percent, allowing companies to fully expense capital investment and eliminating the deduction for interest expense for corporate borrowing.
Interest income, dividends and capital gains would also be taxed at 20 percent under Bush's plan.
"Can you imagine a country that would have a tax code of the lowest tax rate in the entire industrialized world, and where you're rewarding investing in a factory—100 percent deduction? And you're rewarding equity?" he asked. "You're going to see an explosion of investment in this country."
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Combined with regulatory reform and America's energy revolution, the plan would provide an opportunity for the United States to re-industrialize and to create higher wage jobs, he said.
"We need to increase productivity to create higher wages and this plan would do it. This would stimulate higher growth. Combined with other initiatives, you could get to 4 percent growth," he said.
Among the loopholes that Bush would close include the treatment of carried interest, which currently benefits hedge funds. The plan would not allow private equity firms to deduct the interest tied to buying companies either, Bush said.
"This is a radical departure. We're rewarding equity and investing in hard assets," he said.
"Wall Street's had a pretty good ride here engineering and using great creativity and great skills to be able to make American businesses the most competitive in the world, but we're not growing. We're not investing in our own country. People are stuck in the middle."
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Investment bankers will have the opportunity to find new ways to service the investment that will lead to higher growth, Bush said.
As for U.S. companies' foreign profits, Bush would allow companies to repatriate cash held overseas by paying a one-time tax of 8.75 percent, with payment spread over 10 years. After that, he would eliminate taxes on overseas earnings.