ev evanalina. the only ones benefit are those at the top. so much for draining the swamp. this is about as mucky as it gets. i hope my colleagues come to their senses and put the brakes on this terrible tax bill. we can have tax reform, tax reform that's bipartisan, tax reform that can be permanent. tax reform that creates stability. tax reform that creates growth not just for companies, but growth for american workers wages and creates a better economy for all, but this deal, this is a bad deal for the american people. and they deserve much better. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor and observe the absence-- >> as the u.s. senate is meeting nor what could be its final day of debate for the senate version of the tax reform bill. about seven hours of debate on the bill, a final passage vote can take place late this

afternoon. senators are offering changes through motions to commit, votes are planned for 11 eastern on two motions, and now, live to the floor of the u.s. senate, here on c-span2. the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. god you have truly been good to us. even when we stumble and fall, your mercy continues to sustain us. lead our lawmakers to realize that the abilities you have given them are only maximized

when they are used for your purposes. show them the best way to use their talents and opportunity to honor and serve you. may our senators this day speak words that are constructive and helpful, bringing encouragement as well as vision to their labors. give them the wisdom to know your will be the courage to do it. let your presence be felt in this chamber and everywhere on earth. we pray in your holy name.

amen. the president pro tempore: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: under the previous order leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. the senate will resume consideration of h.r. 1, which the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 244,

h.r. one, an act for the tax reconciliation act for fiscal year 2018.

the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. gardner: i ask consent following the remarks from the senate from wisconsin the senate stand in recess. the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: madam president, before address the issue of the taxes, let me address the government funding bill. we are a week away from a

government shutdown which could cost thousands of jobs and billions of dollars as it did in 2013. i think this is something we want to avoid, all of us, democrats, republicans, i talked to some of my colleagues this morning, with the exception, it seems, of the president. this morning's "washington post" reports that president trump has told his confidants that a government shutdown could be good for him politically and that he has asked friends about how a shutdown would affect him politically. it's disappointing, but maybe not surprising that president trump appears to be putting politics before the well-being of the american people. as president, the welfare of the american people should always come first, always. we have a lot of things to accomplish by the end of the year, and a government spending deal is particularly important for our men and women in uniform, as well as a host of programs that create jobs and boost the economy.

the president talks about defending the troops and then threatens shutdown. it's a contradiction, a contradiction, and i'm sure that our generals would tell him that even playing around with the possibility of sequester and shutting down the government is no good for our armed services as well as for the rest of the country. we should all be focused on avoiding a government shutdown. certainly democrats will be working with our republican colleagues in congress to that end. i think our republican colleagues agree. i hope they won't succumb to president trump's whim based on a political decision, not on what's good for america. president trump must change his tune and soon if he wants to be a constructive partner in those discussions rather than the focal point of blame. now, madam president, on taxes. my republican friends have

stretched into two of their -- into day two of their debate on the bill which still lacks resolution of some critical issues. after promising over the past few months that their tax bill would pay for itself through economic growth, the joint committee on taxation came out with a report yesterday that showed that these promises were unfounded, way off the mark. even considering economic growth, the republican tax bill will add roughly a trillion dollars to the deficit, and many have said that this dynamic scoring -- many economists have said it doesn't work at all. here the j.c.t. gave credence is the theory of dynamic scoring but then came out with a number that was not the kind of wild exaggerations we are hearing from the secretary of treasury, from the president and from some of our republican colleagues, particularly those of the --

earlier in this debate, republicans claimed that this would be a tax cut for everybody and that nobody in the middle class is going to get a tax increase. independent analyses showed that these claims were not valid, and to their credit, some republicans corrected the record. now republicans have gotten the dynamic scoring that they have demanded for years. they're in charge. they put dynamic scoring in place. it's still not good enough. as recently as this week, the republican leader and others claimed that this bill would not add to the deficit. we know now that even under the dynamic scoring method the blip party asked for and received, this bill would add a trillion dollars to the deficit. all of the claims that tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations will pay for themselves were not correct. it's time for my republican friends to admit the error and

come clean with the american people. the fact that we received the dynamic score only a day before a final vote on the bill shows just how foolhardy it is to rush a bill like this through. from press reports, we know that the republicans are making the pass-through provisions more generous, widening what was already a gargantuan tax loophole for wealthy business owners. why should wealthy business owners pay a significantly lower rate on their personal income because they're paying no corporate tax if they use the pass-through than the average american? that's what this bill does. hedge funds, big, fancy law firms, lobbyist firms would all get a lower rate than the average american. because of the pass-through. so the average american who makes $100,000, $200,000, who is already paying in the 30% range.

from press reports, you would think maybe republicans would be concerned by the many reports that their bill increases taxes on 60% of middle-class families by the end of the day. nope. instead, the holdout republicans are concerned that this bill isn't generous enough to corporations and wealthy business owners. so now the republican leadership is working to fix that. in the waning hours, this bill is tilting even further towards business, even further away from families. every time the choice is between big corporations and families, the republicans choose the big corporations. and still, -- and still, no one knows what the final bill will look like. why on earth wouldn't you want to spend more than a few hours looking at a bill of this magnitude? what might have been snuck in? what might have been changed by

mistake, innocent mistake? there are so many reasons to not rush this bill through, but we know why it's being done. we know why republican members will only have a few hours at most to read the draft legislation before voting on it. it's notching a political win, i would say to my colleagues. isn't it a -- it isn't a good enough reason to throw common sense out the window. notching a political win isn't a good enough reason to raise taxes and premiums on middle-class families when there is a much better bill to be had working in a bipartisan way, democrats and republicans, across the aisle together. my republican friends must, quote, the need to notch a political win isn't a good enough excuse for a constituent who asks why you voted to raise their taxes but slash them for

big corporations. today may be the first day of the new republican party, one that raises taxes on the middle class. the one thing republicans always promised the middle class is we're not going to raise your taxes. a good number of my colleagues from the other side of the aisle, the senator from texas, i heard him talk about the junior senator from texas, said he doesn't want to raise taxes on any middle-class person. but this bill does it. the republican party is abandoning its long-held principles to please its political paymasters. it's a bad move for the republicans as well as a bad move for america. again, we needed a notch, we needed to notch a political win is going to be no excuse when your constituents complain why they are getting the short end of the stick in this tax bill and wealthy corporations, the

richest people are not. so democrats remain united against any middle-class tax increase, and we will fight to reverse that. the stakes are too high. our economy is already stacked against working men and women. corporate profits and stocks have reached all-time highs. the top 1% captures 20% of the national knack, higher than any time in our history since the roaring 20's. meanwhile, to too many americans, the american dream is slipping away. hardworking americans who get up every morning worried about paying the bills, making the mortgage payment, the tuition payment, the health care bill, they are not getting the help they need in this bill. instead, it's going to the wealthiest, wiggest corporations on a theory of trickle-down which almost everyone accepts

except some right-wing economists and agrees has never made sense. any moral tax bill would focus on giving a leg up to middle-class americans, to working-class americans. instead, this bill directs the lion's share of its benefits to those at the very top, the already wealthy, the already powerful. it makes health care less affordable and less accessible. it will deprive the government of the resources needed to support the military, scientific research, education, and infrastructure. the hole it blows in the deficit will make no mistake, endanger social security, medicare and medicaid. republicans, including president trump, have openly admitted they will seek changes in this program after the tax bill. senator sanders has outlined eloquently how dangerous this bill is to the future of social security and medicare, and i know our republican colleagues came down to argue against him. we're all on the defensive.

all the things our president and republicans say they wanted to do are not happening, and this bill moves in the opposite direction, not only on helping the wealthy and not helping the middle class in the way it needs but also in endangering social security and medicare. most insidious of all, the bill hides a ticking time bomb of middle-class tax hikes at the center of our tax code. who could want to vote for that? many of my republican friends feel the hard right, big, wealthy corporate interests will put these ads on tv saying the bill helps the middle class. it's not going to work. when the middle class gets a tax increase, they're going to know why and they're going to know who to blame and these ads will have faded into the eater. -- into the ether. today, madam president, my republican friends can choose to cement their party as the party that raises taxes on the middle

class. it will be a dramatic turning point in a downward spiral for the republicans. it's something they they have nr believed in before. or republicans have an alternative. they can step back, step back from the brink, work with democrats on a bipartisan tax reform bill to deliver across the board tax relief to the middle class, a bill that makes our businesses more competitive while closing egregious corporate loopholes that grows our economy without adding a penny to the deficit. bipartisan tax reform, not this cynical bill, not this partisan exercise, not this bill that seems to please the 1% but not the rest of america is possible, but only if my friends and colleagues abandon this bill and reach out for a better kind of politics. i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the senator from wisconsin. ms. baldwin: madam president, i rise to offer a motion, an amendment to do something that this tax plan fails to do -- make good on president trump's promise to close the carried interest tax loophole. this amendment has the support of senators whitehouse, donnelly, and van hollen. i think that we need to make our tax system simpler and fairer for hardworking families, businesses, particularly small businesses and manufacturers, and that's what i have been working for. unfortunately, this is not the plan being presented today by senate republicans. let's be honest with the american people. this bill is largely a tax

giveaway to the wealthiest few and big corporations while millions of middle-class families will get a tax hike. with this partisan bill from across the aisle, big corporations get permanent tax breaks, permanent. while middle-class families will see tax increases. in fact, most americans earning less than $75,000 a year will see tax increases, and that is simply not fair. it's also not fair that the top 1% will end up with over 60% of the benefits, and in exchange, 13 million more will lose health insurance. health care premiums will

increase by 10%, and medicare and medicaid have been put on the chopping block to pay for it. in addition, with the senate republican plan, powerful corporations can still deduct their state and local taxes, but they completely eliminate the state and local tax deduction for individual taxpayers. this deduction ensures households aren't taxed twice by the federal government on money they have already paid in state and local taxes, including property taxes. but with the current senate plan, nearly one in three wisconsinites will lose their personal income, sales, and property tax deductions.

and a recent study shows that it could decrease the value of homeownership. the average deduction in wisconsin is $11,653. and nearly $10 billion of wisconsinites' paychecks would be subject to a double tax, all to pay for a plan that favors those at the top. what's more, by the latest elimination -- estimation from our own congressional scorekeeper, this plan will add $1 trillion, $1 trillion to our deficit. breaking our promise to the next generation and sticking them with the bill. our tax code ought to reward hard work more than it rewards wealth. it doesn't do that today and it

won't do that tomorrow if this bill passes. in fact, this republican plan's primary purpose is to reward fortune 500 corporations who will simply reward the wealth of shareholders, not the hard work that drives productivity and growth across our economy. the primary promise of this legislation makes the same promise that has not been kept to workers for decades. trickle-down economics has not worked in the past and it's not going to work now. american workers know that, but my colleagues rushing to pass this legislation don't seem to care because the only thing that matters is delivering for donors

who have too much power and influence in washington. i want to see loopholes closed, like the one that favors wall street hedge funds and allows them to pay a lower tax rate than many wisconsin workers pay. earlier this year, i introduced the carried interest fairness act to close the carried interest tax loophole for millionaires and billionaires on wall street. the carried interest loophole allows certain investment managers to take advantage of the preferential 20% long-term capital gains tax rates on the income they get for managing other people's money rather than the ordinary income tax rates of up to 39.6% that american

workers pay. my legislation closes the carried interest tax loophole by ensuring that income earned by managing other people's money is taxed at the same ordinary income tax rates as the vast majority of working americans' pay. as a candidate, president trump included closing the carried interest tax loophole in his tax reform plan. while campaigning in detroit last year, he said, and i quote, we will eliminate the carried interest deduction and other special interest loopholes that have been so good for wall street investors and for people like me but unfair to american workers. close quote. and then this may after being asked why his tax reform outline didn't mention carried interest

after campaigning on its closure, the president responded by saying, it's out, done. carried interest was great for me, but carried interest was unfair and it's gone. i agree, it is unfair and it should be eliminated. however, it's not gone with this legislation. this loophole for wall street is still in the bill. why? is it because my republican colleagues on the other side of the aisle simply do not believe a word that the president says? is it because wall street lobbyists, big banks, and hedge funds have such a grip on washington? is it because these are the very donors that this legislation is made to serve with a win?

today i'm offering an amendment to close the carried interest tax loophole once and for all. it's simply unfair for wisconsin workers to pay higher income tax rates than a billionaire hedge fund manager on wall street. if you agree, you will support this amendment. if you want to help president trump keep his promises to the american people, you will support this amendment. let's do right by the american people and close this tax loophole for the wealthy on wall street. let's make sure that our tax code rewards hard work as much as it currently rewards wealth. if that isn't simple and fair, i don't know what is.

madam president, i yield back. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate stands in recess subject to the call of the chair. .all of the chair. con expressional reporter on economic policy she says she has spoken to senator john cornyn, they do have the votes. they are at 50. she said this as the senators were heading into meet with white house, actually into their meeting, white house legislative director marc short saying cautiously optimistic they do have the votes to get the bill passed. we are expect lawmakers to return shortly to continue

debate on the bill. first votes expected at 11 eastern today, with vote on final passage later. that expected to all change now, depending on the outcome of that meeting. live coverage of the u.s. senate here on c-span 12. while we wait for the senate to continue, we wait for the finance committee chair, utah senator orrin hatch. >> i have listened to democrats year after year, talk about how they're so much more committed to the middle class and to the poor. as they have driven us right into bankruptcy. instead of trying to work on these matters so that we're not driven into bankruptcy, it is more and more spending. it is more andg, more federal government. more and more regulations. more and moreon