the senate will be back later than the usual to 15 type. lawmakers will be posing for their official photo of the 115th congress. live coverage when members return here on c-span2. some floor speeches now on the senate republican tax reform plan which was passed early on saturday morning. >> even as my republican friends moved to reconcile their to tax bills in a conference committee, their problems are far from over. at the heart of the bill is a unpopular idea. giant tax breaks on big corporations and the very wealthy. paid for by cutting care and raising taxes on millions of middle-class families. the new republican party is a party of tax hikes on the middle class and subsidize corporate welfare. that menacing idea at the core of their bill is a problem that like a hydra, spouts many heads.

slashing the state and local deduction means a massive republican -- problem for republicans in virginia, new york, illinois, washington and, of course, california. multiple analyses have shown that despite the so-called compromise that allows families to deduct upp to $10,000 in property tax, the pain inflicted on suburban families will not be much mitigated. states like california, new york will still experience an exodus of taxpayers training local resources and impacting services. for those housemp republicans, voting for a conference report is a poisonous boat. and not to mention that home values will fall in those districts of those house republicans. if there voting to decrease home values by ten or 8%, for every

homeowner in their district, that's political suicide. why would they do it? that's what will happen, and homeowners will start seeing that right away. anothernc problem, the last-mine inclusion of corporate amt has republicans in corporate leaders scrambling to figure out it it will have the unintended consequence of functionally eliminating the value of the r&d tax credit. remember, the corporate entity s added at the last minute because republicans needed more revenue to offset a generous rate on pass-throughs. that's what republicans were working on in the waning hours last week. now try to figure out how we can help middle-class families with a kid in college, the kid a serious medical expenses. not reducing the impact it would have on our deficit here no, no. there were busy figuring out how to make tax cuts for the wealthy

even more generous. 70% of our pass-through income already flows to the top 1%. not the top 20%, not the top 10%. the top 1%. 70% of pass-through income goes to the top 1% of earners. the republican tax bill already slashed the rate on pass-throughs but several republican senators withheld their votes until the fall was widened further. i do stand and wanted to help small businesses, but take the time and figure out how to help the small businesses without helping the hedge funds. the corporate law firms, the big lobbying firms and other wealthy individuals. take the time to figure it out, but no, in the rush to get a crown for small business owners, they're their giving a whole big nice chocolate layer cake to the wealthy. wrong. very wrong.

the inclusion of the corporate amt a is another reminder the republicans can't have it both ways. youyo can't cut every conceivabe tax on big corporations and the wealthy without blowing up the deficit. if republicans areat forced to o back and look at the corporate amt they will have to find revenue elsewhere. wealthy slightly less in another corporate taxre break? or will they ask working americans to pay more, which they they've done in previous iterations on this bill. yesterday we learned the republican leadership circuited talking points that question the legitimacy of the joint committee on tax, a nonpartisan, independent scorekeepers of tax legislation. rather than confront the awful truth that their bill will not pay for itself but instead cost about $1 trillion even with dynamic growth estimates, republican leadership asked their members to shoot the

messenger. gct widely respected always accepted by both parties all of a sudden is a pariah in republican circles because it told the truth that this bill would not cause the growth they projected, that this bill will increase the deficit far more than republicans had hoped. republican leadership tried to discredit the nonpartisan by the other long praised at the point. what a disgrace. and it i brings up that what's happened in the last week or two here has been one of the most disgraceful episodes in the whole history of the senate. a major bill done behind closed doors, rushed through, and then adding insult to injury, the truth tellers, the independent appointed by republican monitors are discredited because our republicanid colleagues didn't like hearing the answer.

now, there still time to avert this awful bill. if my republican friends vote no on the conference built we can do a a bipartisan tax reform b. we can pursue a much better process, much better product and go so far to heal a senate that is been wounded bipartisanship and strife recently activated, greatly aggravated by the majorities actions on this tax bill. now, end-of-the-year. instead of rushing through a bad tax bill, instead of rushing a bad tax bill through the conference, the senate should focus on the bevy of urine issues confronting us. first and foremost we must reach a spending deal that would have us meet our commitments to support the military and also urgent priorities here at home. like combating the opioid crisis, , shoring up pension plans, supporting veterans health care, relating student loan debt and building rule infrastructure.

in previous budget agreements, democrats have always strived to achieve parity between ourin investments in defense, jobs in economic development here at home. it's a a continually been a sticking point with our republicans as we go through theseou negotiations. they wantot to increase spending for defense, for military, but shortchange important domestic programs like infrastructure, education, scientific research, things that create, jobs, things that help the middle class. we democrats support increased for our military but we want to make sure otherer crucial progrs don't get left behind so we will fight just as hard in this budget agreement to ensure that for each dollar we add for defense, one dollar is added for domestic economic development 50-50 here we care about our soldiers. they are the greatest. they are risking their lives for us but we also care about a pensioner who spent his whole life working in the steel mills,

working driving a truck, working building buildings. they put money religiously weigh every month so they would have something when they retire. theye are important, too. general mattis came to see me and told me how badly our defense department needs help. agree. but i told her to go back to the white house and tell the white house that the domestic side of the ledger needs help w as well. spending of the domestic side of the ledger is no that was in 2010 despite increased costs. we also need to provide funding for community health centers and children healths insurance, reliefst for millions of americs to recovering from natural disasters, and we must come together on a bipartisan deal to pass the dream act with tougher border scooted measures. so it's a lazy to do list, lazy. it's going to require hard work, steady cooperation and compromise on both sides.

last night, however, there was a concern spectacle on the house floor. the freedom caucus held up an unrelated vote on the tax bill, because they were unsatisfied with republican leaderships plan to keep the government open. if we're going to solve all the problems that confront us before the end of the year, house leaders cannot let the freedom caucus, a small band of hard right reactionary conservatives run the show. if they cooperate with democrats, they can accomplish something. to just let the freedom caucus dictate, a recipe for chaos. and once again negotiations broke off because we were at an impasse on the 50-50 on parity for defense and nondefense. that's very important for democrats for years. we've settled our budget agreements, our spending policy on the disagreements always with

50-50, and we believe it is still importants today, parody, parity, parity. as we continue to negotiate with our republican counterparts, we hope the republican leadership can avert more of this unnecessary hostagetaking light was on the house floor last night. which can t only impede the serious ongoing bipartisan notion, negotiations. i yield the floor.

>> mr. president, thank you we know last friday night in the wee hours come into the wee hours of the morning this body do something remarkable. something that people say never happens. we actually got some really important work done and passed a very important piece of legislation, the first overall of our nation's tax code in 30 years. couldn't be done. it's too hard. with democrats opposing us at every step in the committee and on o the floor, people said they are just two obstacles in our way. and it's impossible to

accomplish. people said that too many special interests down on k street will make it impossible for us to figure out this rubik cube of a tax code, too many moving pieces in this giant tome of our tax law. people warned us if you do this, you will take political flak from all sides. ndwell, to the cynics and the skeptics and the doubters, i say you were wrong. we did get it done. families and jobs graders woke up the next after the final vote feeling a little bite more confident about our nation's fiscal future because now that the bill has passed the senate, they will be less way down. they can breathe a little sigh of relief knowing that we are doing our job, we are doing what we said we would do when they gave us control of the

government. of course, it took no time for our major victory to be mocked, denigrated, or simply misrepresented. sometimes a false rumor spreading was done deliberately by our friends on the other side of the aisle, which is ironic. because democrats used to support many aspects of this plan, like lowering taxes for the middle class and eliminating incentives for corporations to ship jobs overseas. i guess you must conclude that theyap were happy with the stats quo, a slow-growing economy, stagnant wages, jobs being shipped overseas because of our self-destructive tax code. i guess you'd have to conclude they thought that was a good thing. well, they knowot it's not a god thing but they just couldn't stand the possibility that we're going to be able to make this

major accomplishment on behalf of the american people because they were so mired down on the politics of the day, they lost sight of the forest for the trees. but we all know it's easier to criticize than to contribute, like when many on the side feigned outrage last friday over small handwritten tweaks that needed to be made to the bill. well, it's interesting. back in 2010, there was an amendment called the durbin amendmentnd number 3989, where, during the course of the debate, it was necessary to make some changes in the bill by handwriting those changes in the bill text. no one thought that that was an outrage. everyone understood that this is sometimes what happens when you're making last-minute changes to legislation.

yet our democratic colleagues acted like this is a first time this had ever been done. 46 senate democrats voted for senator durbin amendment which included these handwritten changes in the text. now don't forget the tax bill was passed last week through regular order. regular order as part of the jargon we use around here, but it means the normal legislative process, unlike the affordable care act it was written in majority leader harry reads office and brought to the senate floor without going through the senate finance committee. unlike a process, this tax bill originated in the senate finance committee, was a product of multi-year studies, working groups, white papers, a lot of proposals like the camp draft for example, that help inform

our debate. we also knew from, for example, the bill that it introduced by the ranking member, w senator wyden along with senator coats, we are able to glean some of the best elements of all of those prior efforts. and using regular order, which is to give democrats and republicans i a chance to contribute to the legislation in the finance committee, which we did, and then here on the senate floor to give democrats and republicans a chance to offer amendments and you get vote on those amendments. that's what we mean by regular order, and that's what our friend from arizona, the senior senator from arizona, senator mccain, rightly called for earlier this fall. there were hearings after hearings. democrats went to them. democrats have the opportunities to offer amendments to the committee markup and offer amendments on the floor. so you simply can't say,

honestly, truthfully, as many democrats have, that the bill was negotiated in dark, dined there back without their participationio -- behind their back -- it is simply a false claim. it's not true. and the facts show that. butgu it's not just our democrac colleagues that a fueled misperceptions about the tax bill that we passed last, late last friday night, early saturday morning. there was a big stir raise with the schooling done by the joint committee on taxation. some of the critics of the tax the jointlatched onto committee on taxation report finding that the bill would increase the economy by .8% over ten years.h not enough for the cuts to pay for themselves, thus adding to the national deficit. that was the claim.

i take concerns about fiscal responsibility very seriously, but we got to acknowledge that economic modeling is notoriously difficult and can be done in a number of different ways. each of these models has its strengths and its h weaknesses. none is perfect. we have not yet been given the gift of perfect knowledge of the future. in the case of the joint committee on taxation, the estimate was a tax bill would generate enough of growth to offset its price tag from 1.4 trillion to about $1 trillion, a net 400 billion feedback effect. this was pretty interesting listening to our colleagues across the aisle. they make the audacious claim that tax cuts generate no economic growth, none. and so when the original budget

committee, budget came out, giving the tax writers $1.5 trillion of deficit spending on a static basis, they claim that that would result in a $1.5 trillion deficit. well, the joint committee on taxation concluded that was not true and, in fact, tax cuts can have steam stable to effect one economy. .. to estimate with any precision. and any giant, complex system like the american economy, the effect of changes is not easy to predict. but even small changes produce large, far-reaching benefits. and in our case, that means changes in our tax code can fuel major economic growth which ought to be our collective goal. why should we have to settle for anemic economic growth? anemic economic growth?

why should we have to settle for flat wages? why should we have to settle for jobs being created overseas because our tax cold incentivizes that? -- tax code incentivizes that rather than incentivizes investment and job creation in the united states? well, the fact of the matter is we don'te have to settle for that, and we haven't. and this tax bill represents our best effort to try to make sure that our economy does grow, that wages do go up and that jobs to come home to the united states because businesses are incentivized to bring that money back home and invest it in jobs and wages here. i'm optimistic that with thewi reforms we've enacted the economy could grow by as much as 3% as the heritage foundation and the tax foundation have said. the president's council of economic advisers, and innine, economistsou agree.

but i'm aware of the saying if you stretch economists end to end, you will never reach a conclusion. they call it the dismal science for a reason. it's not rocket science, it's modelingit that tries to predict is notoriously difficult to do. in fact, you can't do it. but we try't to come up with the best guesstimate that we can. but i think it's wrong just to look at the tax code when you're look at our economic future coupled with the regulatory relief u we've seen under the nw administration along with the congressional review acts where we repealed back some of the onerous overregulation of the economy, with consumer confidence at a 16-year high i think we all have the sense that america is coming back as an economic engine, as a leading economic engine in the world.

and we need to do that. we need to lead the way for the world economy. we need to make sure that the standard of living in america be something that we can achieve a better standard of living for our children and our grandchildren that we ourselves have enjoyed. that's the legacy we've inherited from our parents and grandparents. and, yes,ts in a dangerous world where the former director of national intelligence, james clap arer, said in his 50 years in the intelligence community he had never seen a more diverse array of threats than he did today. and we can't ignore that, which means we have to use some of that prosperity for our common defense. and that's another important thing we're going to have to do before the end of this year, is agree onr a top-line spending number for national defense spending. because we've beensp trying to

cash the peace dividend again when there is no peace. or at least peace is threatened in places around the world whether it's in the south china sea, on syria or north korea or in europe with russia on the march threatening nato and our european allies. so we need a strong economy so standard of living can go up, wages can increase and so we can do the things we know we need to do as a country. now, i realize that these positive analyses by groups like the heritage foundation and tax foundation and the president's council of economic advisers entirely pacify some of the deficit hawks.ome of ie count myself among them. we worry about whether tax reform will add to our debt

and decreased revenue.reased but even based on conservative estimates, this tax reform could result in $130 billion in new revenue, revenue we would not otherwise have. and here's the problem, here's the elephant in the room that people simply choose to ignore or have given up on: revenue isn't our biggest problem, it's our spending addiction. it's the 70% of federal spending that's on autopilot going up on average about 5.5% per year. now, we've tried to do what we could throughed the budget contl act in 2011 and put a cap on discretionary spending including defense spending. and that's been relatively flat since 2011. but all the while entitlement spending has gone up because we don't have the political courage to deal with it.

the deficit can't be eliminated with tax increases. we can't tax america's producers enough to fill the hole. we've got to address mandatory spending which keeps growing year after year after year. it nearly doubled during the obama administration during which time our friends across the aisle never really said much about deficits and debt. but it's real. but we ought to go to the root cause of it and not claim that it'sha making tax cuts to help make our economy more vibrant and improve the quality of life for more americans. putting aside the macroeconomic concerns over the tax bill for a moment, it's easy to see how on a more personal level families and workers will benefit, sometimes in accounts over tax reform the more human focus is

simply left out, and that's a mistake. for example, in our bill rates are reduced for everybody. every tax bracket sees a reduction in their a tax rate. the standard deduction more families is double. so if you're a married couple filing a joint return, the first $24,000 you've earned, there is a zero tax, zero. then we double the child tax credit. i think that's something we should do, because we immediate to help those families -- we need to help those families that have children make sure their family prospers and the child tax credit is one way we can do that. the obamacare mandate to buy government-approved insurance, which is just aan tax on low and middle income americans, is repealed. and i think that's just another form of tax relief.

6.7 million americans had to to pay a penalty to their own government because they couldn't afford to buy the government-mandated insurance because of the way that program was t structured. well, we eliminate that entirely. so hopefully those families can then o use their own resources o buy insurance policies that meet their needs rather than that that the government mandates. we also son the -- soften the blow of the death tax, something i will work to completely eliminatese because i think it'a moral issue. why should we tax income when earned, and then when families want to pass it on to their children whether it's the family farm, f ranch or small business, we tax them again and make that sometimes impossible to do. usually if you want to reduce something, you tax it.

andso that doesn't apply to the death tax because death come no matter t what. but it's immoral, i believe, double taxation. but that's no reason for washington to prevent families from passing on the fruit of their labor to their loved ones. well, the likely result of all of these changes will be that wages will increase by as much as $4,000 for the average family. that's the estimate of the council of economic advisers. and you think about that. if we can get the economy growing faster than the 1.9% anemic growth of the obama years, just think about that. the economy has grown on average at 3.2% since world war ii, yet we're being asked to settle for the new normal of the obama years when the economy grew at 2% or less. so if we can get the economy growing faster, we will see

wages improve, we will see family income improve. and if we can cut their tax burden and relieve them of onerous things like the poverty tax known as the obama individual mandate tax, families will be better off. median family of four will see their tax burden cut by $2200. now, i know in washington, d.c. when we talk about millions and billions and trillions of dollars, $2200 doesn't seem like a lot of money. but for many families struggling to meet their obligations paycheck after paycheck, $2200 can make a big difference. it can help them pay off their mortgage or pay college tuition for their children or replace a water heater or get their car fixed or finally take a family vacation, long delayed. now, the last heedless claim

i've heard about our tax bill is that it mainly benefits corporations at the expense of normal, hard working men and women. once again this is a false claim. some portion of our high corporate tax rates are always borne by labor, by american workers. in other words, you know, our friends across the aisle and the critics sometimes claim a that f you do something for a business whether it's a pass-through business or a corporation, it has no effect on the people that work for it. well, that's just demonstrably wrong. because the better j off those businessesau are, the more peope they can hire, the better the wages are that they can pay, and those help hard working american families. so higher business taxes mean fewer jobs and smaller paychecks. and it means that we are less competitive in a global economy. that's why businesses are moving their headquarters overseas to

low-tax countries like ireland or united kingdom. this situation will change urn our new bill -- under our new bill. in a recent survey of corporate chief executive officers, 82% said theyor would increase capil spending if our bill passed. 76% said they would increase hiring. so, yes, it's true the business will benefit, but we want them to because the end result will be less tax dodging and more jobs coming backd home. and as i mentioned earlier, apart from businesses, families and individuals benefit too. what's so bizarre about the debate is that this is a concept that former president obama championed that the democratic leader,ed senator schumer, has championed and the ranking member of senate finance

committee, senator wyden, has championed, lower corporate taxes because they realize this is a self-inflicted wound because it forces businesses overseas and prevents them from bringing a their income back and investing in the united states in jobs and wages. my question to them is have you forgotten? well, i don't think they've forgotten. mr. president, throughout the taxt, reform process members of this republican conference on this side of the aisle worked together, and i'm grateful for the contribution that each and every one of them made. we knew that with strong headwinds from our opponents on the other side of the aisle who wanted failure -- presumably because they like the status quo -- rather than success, we knew this was going to be difficult, and it was. but we got it done.

but we're not finished yet. as we head into a conference with the house of representatives, the focus has to be on how we can maintain support here in the senate. i hope our friends across the capitol understand that the senate bill was a very fragile compromise and that one or two -- well, two or more senators who would not support that bill could jeopardize the house-senate conference. so we've got to be very careful. we've got to continue to communicate and work together with each other. and we can't undermine our own victory. and it's not just our victory, it's a victory for american families and for our country and for our standing in the world. so when we begin our conversations with the house, let's take care to work closely together and continue to

communicate. let's prove that passing tax reform wasn't just a dream or an aberration. it was real. and now with the ball on the 5-yard line, we've just got to punch this into the end zone. mr. president, i yield the floor. and i note the absence of a quorum. >> clerk will call the roll. >> mr. president? >> senator from south dakota's recognized. >> thank you, mr.so president. mr. president, relief for americanun families is on the w. last week the senate passed our version of the tax cuts and jobs act, the tax reform bill that will provide immediate, direct working americans. our legislation doubles the standard deduction, it doubles the child tax credit, and it lowers rates. under our bill a family of four making $73,000 a year will see a $2200 tax cut or a reduction in taxes of about 60% over what

they are paying under current law. a singley parent with one child making $41,000 will see his or her taxes drop from around $1865 today to just $488 under our bill, a reduction of nearly 75% overn what they're paying today. but, mr. president, that's just the beginning. the tax bill before us today is going to provide immediate relief to hard working families. it's going to immediately lower their tax bills. it's going to immediately mean more money in their pockets. but this bill is about much more than that. this bill isn't just about helping americans today, although it is most certainly going to do that. the bill is about helping americans for the long term. it's about giving americans access to the kinds of wages, jobs and opportunities that will set them up for a secure and prosperous future.

and the way that we do that is by improving the playing field for american businesses. in order for individual americans to thrive economically, we need american businesses to thrive. thriving businesses create jobs. they provide opportunities. ands, they increase becames and invest -- wages and invest in their workers. our current tax code hasn't been helping businesses c thrive. more years now our -- for years now our tax laws have left businesses of all sizes struggling under the burden of high tax rates and an outdated tax system that has left american businesses at a disadvantage in the global economy. small businesses employ nearly halfal of american workers and create a majority of the new jobs in this country. but right now small businesses face high tax rates that can make it difficult for these businesses to even survive, much less thrive and expand their operations. our bill will fix this. to start with, our bill

implements a new deduction for pass-through businesses like partnerships, llcs and s corporations. this deduction will allow them to keep more of their money which will allow them to reinvest in their operations, increase wages and hire new workers. our bill also reforms current provisions in the tax code that frequently leave small businesses with very little cash onon hand. under our legislation small businesses will be able to recover the capital they've invested in things like inventory and machinery much more quickly. and in certain cases, immediately. this in turn will free up capital that small businesses can use to expand and to create jobs. our legislation also includes provisions that i helped develop that will simplify accounting rules for small businesses which will also help reduce their tax burden leaving more of their earnings to reinvest in their businesses be their workers. mr. president, in addition to providing relief to small

businesses, another thing our bill will do is to boost americans' wages. i should say to do is boost american wages and lower our massive corporate tax rate. our nation's corporate tax rate today is currently the highest in the industrialized world which puts the united states at a major disadvantage next to our international competitors. reducing the corporate tax rate will enable american businesses to compete on a more level playing field which will in turn free up money that u.s. businesses can use to create jobs and increase wages. the white house council of economic advisers estimates that reducing the corporate tax rate to 20%, as our bill does, will increase wages for u.s. households by $4,000 annually. that's money that families can use to save for retirement, help pay for a child's education, replace an aging vehicle or invest in a new home. our bill will also boost wages

and increase opportunities for americans by ending the outdated tax framework that is driving american companies to keep jobs and profits overseas. our nation currently operates under a a so-called worldwide tx system. that means that american companies pay u.s. taxes on the profit that they make here at home as well as on part of the profits they make abroad once they bring that money back to the united states. the problem with this is that american companies are already paying taxes to foreign governments on the money that they make abroad. then when they bring that money home, they can end up having to pay taxes again on part of those profits and at the highest tax rate in the industrialized world. it's no surprise that this discourages businesses fromge bringing theirir profits back to the united states to invest in their domestic operations, in new jobs and in increased wages. our bill, mr. president, replaces our outdated worldwide tax system with a territorial

tax system. under our legislation american companies will no longer face the double taxation that has encouraged them to send their investments and their operations overseas. instead, u.s. companies will have a strong incentive to invest their profits at home in american jobs and in american workers. all in all, the tax foundation estimatess. that in addition to increasing wages, our bill will create nearly one million new jobs for american workers and boost the size of the economy by 3.7%. mr. president, i don't need to tell anybody that american families have had a tough time in recent years or that our economy as a whole has stagnated with weak economic growth, almost nonexistent wage growth and a lack of opportunity that has become the norm for way too manyat families. but this tax bill marks the beginning of the end of the

obama era economy. the tax bill that we just passed will usher in a new era of dynamism in this country. it will let americans keep more of their c earnings right now, d it will improve americans' economic situation for the long term. and it will send a message, mr. president, to the world that america's serious about competing and succeeding and winning in the 21st century economy. under this bill american companies will compete and win globally, and american businessesn large and small and the american people will thrive as a red result. mr. president,ep i look forwardo going to conference and getting a final comprehensive tax reform bill to the president. we have a once in a generation opportunity, literally a once in a lifetime chance, mr. president, to make a real difference in the lives of americans.illions of it's time to get this bill across the finish line.

it can't happen soon enough for the american people. mr. president, i yield the floor.r. >> president? >> senator from vermont is recognized. >> thank you. mr. president, president trump and the republican leadership, you just heard, are talking every day on television, news conferences telling the american people how this tax bill that was passed here at 2:00 in the morning on friday night without any hearings, with no serious debate, how in this tax bill is designed to help the middle

class and how it was written for the middle class. unfortunately, i suspect that i will not shock too many americans by is suggesting -- by suggesting that what president trump has been saying is not truthful. this legislation, according to numerous independenting studies, will provide 62 president of the -- 62% of the benefits to the top%. 62% of the benefits will gothe g taxes ong 83 million middle clas households by the end of the decade. now why? and the reason is because the tax cuts more middle class families -- for middle class families expire by the end of 2025 while the o tax breaks for

large corporations are made permanent. mr. president, we are living in a moment in american history where we have an unprecedented level of income and wealth inequality, where the top 1% now owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90%, where the top 1% owns almost twice as much wealth as the bottom 90%. and if you can believe it, where three of the wealthiest people in this country -- mr. gates, mr. bezos and mr. buffett, three people -- own more wealth than the bottom half of the american population. that is where we areopul right . yet in the midst of this incredible level of income and

wealth inequality, my republican colleagues believe that this is a moment when 62% of the benefits of so-called tax reform should go to the top 1%, and 42% of benefits should go to the top one-tenth of 1% while at the same time tens of millions of middle class families will end up paying more in taxes. how crazy is that? so we have a situation in which the wealthy who need tax breaks the least will benefit the most, and the working class and middle class of this country which need the most help will will benefit the least. the president of the united

states and my republican colleagues tell the american people that trickle down economics, giving huge tax breaks to the wealthy and large corporations, will expand the economy. you just blared, -- mr., senator thune talking about that. they'll create so many jobs and bring in so much revenue that it will pay for the deficit it creates. mr. president, every independent expert who has taken a look at this a tax bill has said that it will substantially increase the deficit even after accounting for the possibility of increased economic growth. joint committee on taxation has told us that this bill will increase the deficit by $1.4 trillion $ over the next decade. now, why is that important? well, first of all, it shows --

if i may say -- the hypocrisy of my republican colleagues who year after year after year on this y floor lectured us about e a $20 trillion national debt and growing deficits. we heard this time and time again. but somehow when it comes to the need to provide tax breaks to billionaires, that concern about the deficit seems to have disappeared. but secondly, mr. president, and more immediately there is no doubt in my mind that if the republicans are able to pass in this bill which will soon go to a conference committee, this bill which gives huge tax breaks to the top 1% and raises the

deficit by $1.4ing trillion, wills no doubt in my -- there is no doubt in my mind that they will suddenly rediscover their great concern about deficits and the debt and move directly within the next few months to begin theon process of cutting programs desperately need by working families of this country, the el -- the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor. now, mr. president, this is not just bernie sanders speculating. this is what "the new york times" said in a front page article a few days ago, and i quote, front page article, new york times. quote: as the tax cut legislation passed by the senate early saturday or hurtles toward final approval, republicans are preparing to use the swelling

deficits made worse by the package as a rationale to pursue their long-held vision undoing the entitlements of the new deal and great society, leaving government leaner and the safety nets skimpier for millions of americans. speaker paul d. ryan and other republicans are beginning to express their big dreams publicly, vowing that next year they will move on to changes in medicare and social security. president trump told a missouri rally last week, quote: we're going to go into welfare reform, end of quote, new york times. mr. president, let me take this opportunity to translate into english what phrases like entitlement reform or welfare reform rae mean.

really mean. what they mean in reality are cuts to social security, medicare, medicaid, education, knew tradition program -- nutrition programs, affordable housing and other programs desperately needed by a declining middle class. it means that after they pass so-called tax reform bill which would provide a $200,000 tax breakre to ceos who make over 16 million a year, they will come back to the floor of the senate and fight for cuts to social security for senior citizens trying to survive on 12 or $13,000 a year. massive cuts for millionaires and billionaires in their taxes at the same time as they want to

cut social security, medicare and medicaid for struggling seniors.ni mr. president, i means, entitlement are reform means at a time when millions of seniors are splitting their pills in half because they cannot afford the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs, republicans want massive cuts to medicare. it means that when two out of every three nursing home residents in this country rely on medicaid to pay for their long-term care, the republicans want to make massive cuts to medicaid. now, we do not know exactly what form these cuts will take. i think that is not yet clear. there has been discussion among republicans about raising the retirement age for social

security to 70, 70 years of age, forcing older workers to work years more before they can get their earned retirement benefits. maybe they will cut back on cost of living increases through a so-called chain cpi, and that is a new formulation which means lower benefits not only for seniors, but for millions of disabled veterans. they apparently believe, for those of you who are on social security now, that the c. opt l.a.s you have been getting are i just too high. that 0% increase you got a couple years ago just much too high, we've got to change the formulait and lower benefit increases. will go back to their long-term dream of privatizing medicare, converting it into a voucher program which

will say to the elderly in this country here is a check for $8,000, and you go out and you find private insurance on your own. and i would say, good luck to any elder hi person in this country -- elderly person in this country who is struggling with heart disease or cancer, and you see what kind of insurance program you are going to get with a check of $8,000. mr. president, i would remind my colleagues that many of these proposals were included in the budget resolution the republicans vote for right here on the floor of the senate. this is not speculation, these are issues and items that republicans already voted for. they already voted for a trillion dollar cut to medicaid

which would throwow some 15 million americans off of health insurance. they have already voted in the budget to cut medicare by $473 billion. mr. president, in my view the last thing we should be doing is giving tax breaks for billionaires while cutting programs for thems most vulnerae people in our country. now, mr. president, during campaign donald trump -- as a candidate -- promised he would not cut social security, medicare andit medicaid. he made that promise over and over again. and let me just quote here on some of these charts and some of these tweets exactly what donald

trump said on campaign trail. this is what he said. quote: i was the first and only potential gop candidate to state there will be no cuts to social security, medalicare and medica. end of quote. on another occasion he said, quote: i am not a cutter. i'll probably be the only republican that doesn't want to cut social security. that was january 24th, 2015. quote, donald trump, here it is: it's my absolute intention -- not being very vague about this one, mr. president -- his absolute intention to leave social security the way it is. not increase the age and to leave it as it is, end of quote. donald trump, march 10th, 2016.

and here's another quote, mr. president, donald trump. quote: you know, paul ryan wants to knock out social security, knock itl down, way down. he wants to knock medicare way down and, frankly, well, two things. number one, you're going to lose the election if you're going to do that. mow, i want to get rid of waste, fraud and r abuse. i wallet to do a lot of hinges to it -- i want to do a lot of things to it that are going to make it much better, actually. but i am not going to cut it. and i am not going to raise ages. and i'm not going to do all of the things that they want to do. but they want to really cut it, and they want to cut it very substantially. republicans, and i'm not going to do that. end of quote. well, before i get on to the next quote, i want to tell donald trump as a candidate, man, he was exactly right!

this is what he said on march 29th, 2016. he said the republicans wanted to cut social security and medicare and medicaid. well, candidate trump, you are exactly right, because that is now what we will see in a few weeks or a few months. another quote from donald trump as a candidate. social security faces a problem, 77 million baby boomers set to retire. now, i know there are some republicans who would be just fine with allowing these programspr to wither and die on the vine. the way they see it, social security and medicare are wasteful entitlement programs, but people who think this way needay to rethink their positio. it's not unreasonable for people who paid into a system for decades to expect to get their money's worth. that's not an entitlement,

that's honoring a deal. end of quote. well, there it is. mr. president, candidate donald trump said over and over and over again that he would not cut socialoc security, he would not cut medicare, he would not cut medicaid. and, in fact, quite correctly he predicted that the republicans would try to do exactly that. would like to talk directly, if i might, to the president of the united states. and i would say, mr. president, on the campaign trail you said overai and over again you would not cut social security or medicare or medicaid. and today i am asking you

nothing more than to keep your words! don't lie to the american people. millions of people voted for you because you said you would not cut social security, medicare and medicaid. keep your word. tell senate leader mcconnell and tell house speaker paul ryan that you will veto any legislation that cuts these programs. and with that, mr. president, i would yield the floor. >> well, a number of news organizations including politico have this story today, congressman john conyers facing several allegations of sexual harassment announced that he is leaving congress and endorsed his son to replace him. quote: i'm retiring today, conyers told a detroit radio station this morning, and i want

everyone to know how much i appreciate the support i've received across the years from my supporters not only in my district, but across the country as well. the michigan democrat has represented detroit since 1965. you can read the entire story at politico.com. here is the official announcement on the house floor earlier today read by congresswoman sheila jackson-lee. >> thank you very much, mr. speaker. a few minutes ago in detroit the dean of the united states congress offed his retirement -- offered hisng retirement immediately. he has asked me, a member of the judiciary committee, to offer his words to his colleagues and to, again, put this statement in the record that indicates that he's notified speaker ryan, leader pelosi and governor snyder