Skip to main content

tv   U.S. Senate 12192017  CSPAN  December 19, 2017 2:15pm-8:16pm EST

2:15 pm
a moment ago. leaving the hallway we will take you back to the floor of the senate live and take you back there now live on c-span2. equally divided until 3:00 p.m. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. inhofe: i also ask for unanimous consent that at the conclusion of the remarks, the senator from virginia, that i be recognized for such time as i may consume. the presiding officer: without
2:16 pm
objection. mr. kaine: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. kaine: i thank my colleague, the senator from oklahoma, and i rise to talk about the tax debate that the senate is currently having. i want to highlight some of the reasons why i think this bill is bad and focused on the missed opportunity that we are about to embark on when we could have found a much better project. let me tell you a story from when i was mayor. i was mayor of richmond -- and i know my colleague from oklahoma was a mayor as well -- and when i was mayor, i had a city council colleague who introduced a seemingly benign bill, a bill to limit the number of dogs and cats anybody could have at their residence. pursuant to city rules, we had to post this resolution in the newspaper for a couple of weeks so that citizens could read it. and we had a public hearing where any citizen who wanted to speak for or against the resolution had the opportunity to and then the city councilmembers debated and then we had a vote. it turned out to be a little
2:17 pm
more controversial than the councilmember originally contemplated. the minor little debate in the city council of richmond when i was mayor about the number of pets you could have at your residence received more openness and transparency and discussion and debate than the vote that we will have within a few hours or days about the entire tax code of the united states. instead of doing a bill openly and deliberately with a lot of public input and ultimately reaching for a bipartisan result, we have moved hastily in secret in a bipartisan way and in my view that is the reason why the end product is going to be so discouraging. we had a vote in the budget committee to forward this tax bill forward. it was interesting. we actually voted before we discussed it. the bill was on everybody's desk. the chair decided that we would
2:18 pm
vote and only later would we talk about it. that would never have been done at a rich monday city council meeting. we had a full -- richmond city council meeting. we had a full audience of citizens who wanted to be heard. they were not given an opportunity to. that wouldn't be done at a richmond city council meeting. some of the citizens started to sort of protest and get angry and get mad and shout. when that happens in a committee meeting, i cringe because it's a violation of the decorum i expect but what choice do they have. this is only a tax reform that affects the entire american economy and every american family and every american business and they feel shut out of the process. the first version of this bill that was live was released to the public in the house on thursday, november 9. the current version which is the fifth version of the bill was only released last friday night, four days ago. so this bill to completely rework the united states economy
2:19 pm
moves from introduction to passage over just 41 days, multiple versions often with handwriting in them handed out at the last minute before votes. the last time this body did comprehensive tax reform in 1986, the senate had 36 days of public hearings over ten months. this plan has had zero, zero public hearings. when the finance committee refuses to allow a hearing, when the budget committee forces a vote before the members even have a chance to express their opinions, is this really what the senate wants to be known for? and the states couldn't be -- i'm hoping still at the end it's highly unlikely but i hope still at the end we might decide to do this the right way, not the wrong way. because when you approach the process the wrong way, quickly, secretly in a partisan way without public input or hearings, you get a bad bill. and this bill in my view is a
2:20 pm
bad bill. the benefits in this bill overwhelmingly accrue to folks who are at the top -- who frankly don't need our help. 83 % of the tax plan's benefits go to the top 1% earners in this country because of giveaways like increasing the estate tax threshold and altering the alternative minimum tax. if you make over a million dollars, you will get a collective tax cut of $36.9 billion just in 2019, those who make over a million will see their taxes go down by that much. massive tax cuts go to foreign individuals. so in stock in american companies, about $48 billion just in the first year go to foreign individuals because of their ownership of stock in american companies. but to the contrary, millions of middle-class people are hurt. by 2027 every income group below $75,000 will face a tax increase on average.
2:21 pm
and 92 million households, the combined population of probably 30 states under $200,000 would face net tax increases in this bill. that's over half of all households in the country. and the working poor get hurt especially, the working poor who have the most to lose and the least margin to get hurt. by 2025 this bill would reduce the after-tax incomes of households with incomes below $40,000 while it would boost the after-tax incomes of households with incomes over a million. i want to assume in charity that the hurting of the working poor and the helping of folks at the top is a result of haste rather than design. we could take the time and get this right. these analyses that i just indicated are done by the nonpartisan c.b.o. whose director is from the her kay today -- mercatus institute
2:22 pm
which is a very conservative economics department and all the analyses come to virtually the same conclusion. the bill dramatically increases the deficit to the tune of $1.4 trillion over the ten -- next ten years. it will lead to millions of people uninsured, the c.b.o. says 13 million. and for my own commonwealth, they have a number of provisions that are harmful. we are one of the top recipients or claimants to the state and local tax. virginians are going to be hurt because of the elimination of the historic tax credit. why couldn't we work together? why couldn't we work together to try to do something that would be right as president reagan and congress did in 1986? 16 democrats and one republican stood up a few weeks ago and we said we are ready to work with republicans on tax reform. yet former governors who have dunbar tax reform, you had former tax commissioners who worked on tax issues and we said
2:23 pm
we're ready to work with you to make this better. every one of us in that group have worked on bipartisan tax reform. i've done it as a mayor and i've done it as a governor and i know how to do it and i have ideas but no one was interested in a single one. the night we voted, the late friday night, i put an amendment on the table to show my republican colleagues our good faith in saying we'll work with you. i stood up and of course i was only given a minute to make an amendment. the process says even though it's the entire american economy, you only get one minute. i stood and i said i can't fix the bill in a minute but i can do a couple of things. i can reduce the deficit by a trillion and i can make every middle-class tax cut that's temporary in this bill permanent. i can do those two things. permanent middle-class tax cut, reduce the deficit by a trillion if you will agree with me to do the following. don't touch the a.m.t. and estate tax and reduce the corporate tax rate, not to 20% but to 25%. from 35% to 25%. 34 democrats voted for tax reform for the reduction of the
2:24 pm
corporate tax rate from 35% to 25% and making middle-class tax cuts permanent and reducing the deficit by a trillion dollars but not a single republican, not a single one would vote to make the middle-class tax cuts permanent and reduce the deficit. we still want to work on it. we can still make it better. as i conclude, mr. president, i'll just notice again it was notable that when president reagan did tax reform as president in 1986, this didn't get 50 votes. 50 votes plus a tie breaker, 51 votes. in this body the greatest deliberative body in the world, the reagan era tax reform got 97 votes. because me took -- because they took the time to have hearings and hear from the public and took the time to hear ideas. president reagan said as he was embarking upon that, quote, it should not be a partisan debate. for the authors of tax reform come from both parties and all
2:25 pm
of us want greater fairness, incentives and simplicity in taxation. he was right then and that remains true and yet this is a process that's not incorporated, either the thoughts of the public or the thoughts of the democratic minority. i'll say this, mr. president, to close. the g.o.p. is not measured by who it says its hero is. most of my g.o.p. friends have posters of president reagan or pictures of president reagan and talk about him as a personal hero. but you really are not measured about who you say your hero is. you're measured by who you act like. this is not a president reagan era tax reform. this is not the way president reagan would have done tax reform. this is a president trump bill. a last-minute change in this bill, a very important last-minute change that only came in at the very end would directly benefit president trump and his family by further exploiting a loophole to give real estate developers more money. this was on top of giving him relief on the estate tax and the
2:26 pm
alternative minimum tax, but the last minute, there was one last change made that was specifically designed, specifically designed to help president trump make even more. no, this is not a reagan era tax reform bill. this is purely a product of president trump. and it follows what he -- sigh one thing and do another, claim to help the middle class but actually hurt them. say it's not going to help me or wealthy people when it actually does. i'm not surprised by the president but i am surprised by many of my colleagues here because we have worked on something and not missed an opportunity that would have been far better for the american economy. and it is still my hope that we will. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. inhofe: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: first of all, my very good friend from virginia, and he is a good friend, i think he needs to reread this bill.
2:27 pm
now, i'm older than he is and most of the people around here but i do remember the reagan tax cuts. this is a reagan tax cut. you know, i -- i listened to the other side. a lot of the liberals on the other side -- because there's a difference between democrats and republicans. we understand that. they come out and it's always class ware fair. it's -- warfare. it's always they're doing this for the rich. the rich is going to get richer. there's a group called the national tax foundation. the national tax foundation did analysis of this. they did it state by state. in my state of oklahoma, the average family of four in my state of oklahoma will get an increase in their take-home pay of $2,000. now, -- where did it come from? the standard deduction, for example. the senator talked about this is for the rich. this isn't for the rich. your standard deduction actually
2:28 pm
goes from $6,000 to $12,000. if you're married, it's from $12,000 to $24,000. the child tax credit, we're all concerned about child tax credits. several republicans wanted to do even more than that. right now as the law is, it's $1,000. but it's going to be increased after this is over, after we vote and we have tax -- and we have a tax reduction, a major tax reduction, that child tax credit will go from $1,000 to $2,000 per child. that's a huge thing. that's not for the wealthy. you know, i listen sometimes and they talk about how this is going to increase the deficit. i've got to tell you, though, i remember very well -- in fact, i remember so well, i was watching and i've given it in speeches several times, reagan reduced the taxes twice.
2:29 pm
in 1981, one in 1986. in 1981, the total amount of revenue that came into the federal government was $469 billion. he had a huge reduction in rates. yes, the top rate, it went down from 70% to 50%. then the others went down in accordance a similar percentage. now, what happened to that was while it was -- the total amount that came in before that tax -- the tax cuts was $469 billion. afterwards it was $750 billion. the same thing happened again in 1986. 1986 the total revenue that came into the federal government was $569 billion. at the end of that period of ten years that they're measuring, it was $1 trillion. now, the problem is and the other side always says, wait a minute, our deficits increased during that time frame. yeah, they did. i have to say this. it was not because of ronald
2:30 pm
reagan. it was because the congress -- the house and the senate -- were run by liberal democrats and as fast as the increase in revenue came in, they were spending not just the increase but even more. so that's one of the differences now, because i anticipate we're going to have a conservative house and a senate for the years to come, and we'll just have to wait and see what's right. i do agree with my friend, though, from virginia in one respect, and that is he and i both had the hardest job in the world. you never know what a hard job is until you're mayor of a major city. there is no hiding place. if they don't like the trash, it ends up in your front yard. anyway, that's not what i'm here to talk about today. i'd like to talk about someone who -- well, i'll put it this way. way back in the 1950's, back when eisenhower was president, three giants came to washington, d.c. two of the three giants people know about and they have heard
2:31 pm
of and they are well known. one was billy graham. we all remember billy graham. still right now, the things he has done, he has done more for jesus and for god. just every time i get a chance to see something on tv that is from one of his past rallies, i do so. the other one came there, the three that came, the three giants that came was bill bright. some of you may not remember who bill bright was. he was the founder of campus crusade for christ. he was the guy actually that started -- people are not aware of this in the general public, but we actually have events where two times a week, one's a prayer breakfast and one is a bible study. bill bright was the one who started that. everyone has heard of bill bright and the campus crusade for christ. but the third giant that came in, no one's heard of. his name was doug coe. this is doug coe. doug coe came up there with the other two giants, and he really
2:32 pm
changed america. he died last february 21. i purposely for an obvious reason you will find out in a minute waited until now to talk very much about him. you see, doug coe, people think of him as having been someone who is a great diplomat and he had political influence and all of that. there was an article written not long ago. i will read this to you, because he did things like that, but he did it second only to his real mission in life. the article goes like this. the extent of coe's influence in american politics is real. important figures have acknowledged his role on the national and international stage. for instance, speaking at the 1990 national prayer breakfast, president george h.w. bush praised coe for his quiet diplomacy. i don't ever remember in the years i have known him that he ever raised his voice. he was always a quiet diplomat.
2:33 pm
doug coe was behind the scenes player at the camp david accords. he was also working with president jimmy carter to issue a worldwide call to prayer with israeli prime minister begin and egyptian president anwar sadat. coe met with the top economic officials in pakistan as a special enjoy. coe met with president george h.w. bush as he hosted a luncheon with iraq's ambassador to the united states in the mid 1980's. in 2001, coe helped arrange a private meeting between two warring leaders. by the way, i was there so i remember this firsthand. that was the president of congress -- of congo, and the president of rwanda. i was there because it happened during the national prayer breakfast, and he had these two presidents of warring countries in there to talk to them in the spirit of jesus, and that is when everything broke down.
2:34 pm
they became friends, and they signed a peace accord, and that was doug coe. doug was a member of a larger united states congressional and ministerial delegation which accompanied then-first lady hillary clinton to the 1997 funeral of the founder of the sisters of charity mother teresa. he is mentioned by judge workburg in his book "if you want to walk on water, you've got to get out of the boat." the book was partly about doug coe. he was a guy who had a great influence in bringing medicine and releasing political prisoners in kenya. we all remember that's happened. so here we have a guy that was bringing warring powers together. he was solving serious problems with the country, and yet that weant his mission. i know i will lose credibility when i say this because people think it's impossible. a few people here know it's not
2:35 pm
impossible because i heard it once before. that is that doug coe is -- has actually taken his mission, which is a jesus mission. by the way, "time" magazine listed him among the 25 most influential evangelicals in america. but anyway, i will lose credibility when i say that, in fact, doug coe has been to every country in the world. the reason i know this, i thought we had him one time because zanzabar, people think it's a separate country next to tanzania. he never was in zanzabar and i was. then we found out he was right, i was wrong, that is not a separate country. anyway, he has had this jesus mission for a long time, actually since the late 1940's. so i want to just mention, i hope and pray that my kids and grandkids when it comes time for me to cash out will be as
2:36 pm
respectful and as loving as his kids and grandkids were at his funeral. we call it a celebration, not a funeral. one of his grandkids, sam wagner, he talked about a trip with his grandpa to nepal. sam recalled how doug not only met with dignitaries but also met with the young kids carrying machine guns who had shut the city down. justin, justin is a grandson. justin, he recited a story of jesus feeding the 5,000. you have heard the story before. he said that doug reminds him of the little boy in that story. just as the boy brought his loaves and fish to jesus, doug brought all that he had to jesus. doug used to ask his grandson the question if you give jesus all of your love, what will happen? you will not run out of love for other people. rather, jesus will make your love enough for the whole world. that's a grandson. gosh, i'd like to have my grandkids feel that way. melissa, she is a granddaughter.
2:37 pm
melissa at the very last of the event or celebration i'm referring to, she is the one who stood up and she said i don't want you to leave this service talking about jesus because dous because doug would certainly have been disappointed if they left talking about him. so anyway, we had people like that. we had famous people at that meeting, by the way. one was this dr. barbara williams skinner. the first time she met doug, he talked like he already knew her well and like she already knew jesus well, even though she had only recently accepted jesus into her life. but barbara, barbara skinner, she is a very liberal democrat. a wonderful person, liberal democrat. she jokingly said that doug didn't understand gender because most of his fellow members were men, and he would say to her we brothers have to stick together. doug made barbara pray for ronald reagan at the national
2:38 pm
prayer breakfast when ronald reagan was president. even after she told him that she didn't know enough scripture to pray for republicans, doug challenged her to confront her skepticism of people of different political beliefs, and she did. you know, he had ways of saying things and getting things done that other people didn't. one of the well-known people that was there at the -- at the celebration was sam nunn. we remember sam nunn. he was a very well-known united states senator. he is the one who really concentrated on rebuilding our national defense when it needed to be rebuilt. he talked about doug coe. he said doug formed small fellowships and prayer groups in the house, in the senate, in the pentagon, in the executive branch, the judicial branch, and he also formed groups globally all over the world. he started many diverse
2:39 pm
fellowship groups throughout japan and injected them all with jesus. and jesus was it with doug. when he -- sam told a story about playing golf with doug, doug was a good golfer. he was talented. he made bets with the people that he played golf with. and if they -- if they lost, they would have to -- it wasn't a money deal. they would have to memorize a bible verse or go on mission trips, and doug always wins. i always will remember what sam said very quietly in a quiet voice. he said doug coe was a sermon we saw. if we looked closely, we also saw a glimpse of jesus. another guy that was very well known to all of us here, known worldwide, is a gade named ward brimm. ward brimm, he enjoys talking about doug coe. he is the one that repeated, assuming doug said a long time ago, that george h.w. bush said a long time ago. he said that doug coe has more
2:40 pm
friends who are heads of state than i do. this is the president of the united states talking. he also said, and one of his favorite quotes, doug coe was the most famous person nobody has ever heard of. well, anyway, he said -- telling a story, ward brimm, he said in an early conversation about africa, doug once asked me, he said if you were god, how would you help all those poor people in africa? my mind went totally blank, and i stammered. doug said -- i said i don't know. doug said we're not in a hurry. just think about it for a while. so he said, ward brimm said i did, i thought about it for a while. my mind was still a blank. finally in frustration, i said i'm not god so i don't know what i would do, but you seem to know, so you tell if you were god, how should you help the poor people in africa? and doug coe said very quietly, i would change the hearts of their leaders. now, here's what doug did.
2:41 pm
he didn't just change the hearts of leaders. he changed the hearts of leaders around the world. every country in the world. one man did that. i don't know how that's even possible. you know, another person that was -- that was in a different kind of expression. his name is lee atwater. not many people remember lee atwater. he was well known in republican circles. he actually was chairman of the republican party a number of years ago. now, he was a talented, charismatic guy. he played guitar, he sang. everybody used to love him. he was actually one of the -- arguably one of the best political mechanics around at that time. but he at that -- something bad happened to him. he got leukemia. he knew he was going to die. he wasn't sure. he said, you know, if i'm going to die, i have to be rational about this thing. i don't know who god is. i don't know who jesus is. so on friday, march 16, after a white house breakfast, lee
2:42 pm
struck up a conversation with the president's secretary, patty prescott. she suggested that he call doug coe. now, she was suggesting that lee atwater call doug coe. at that time he was working with members of congress on the national prayer breakfast. 11 days later, lee arrived at the cedars in virginia overlooking the potomac. it served as the headquarters for doug coe's fellowship foundation. now, using a cane, he, lee atwater, nearing his death, walked into the main house and sized up his 60-year-old host, and he said -- and this is a quote -- i have been in this city for many years now, and i never heard of you. who are you anyhow, he said to doug? and doug said well, we have many mutual friends all over the city. i've heard about you for a long time. lee atwater said what have you heard? doug replied i've heard that you are a real s.o.b.
2:43 pm
now, he didn't say s.o.b., he said the real words. coe -- their dialogue began at that time. so from then until august, lee was deteriorating, and one august day, lee asked coe to come to his hospital bed in an emergency. he was dying. he wanted to find out what is this deal about jesus? what is this deal about god? he said when he arrived, lee looked at him with his best piercing glare, and he said this jesus business, is he god or ist he god? some say he is god. some say he is man. doug replied this is something you have to decide for yourself. but let me just tell you a little story. lee gave coe his full command and focus. you're big on the golden rule, said doug coe. now, let's just say that you are the most powerful figure in the universe. now, this is doug coe talking to lee atwater. you are the most powerful person
2:44 pm
in the universe and you could say let there be a star or a planet, and, boom, it exists, or you wanted to create elephants and boom, there are elephants or cows or human beings. anything you wanted, you had all the power, right? you understand that? so you're sitting up in a cloud somewhere looking down on earth, and you see these cows grazing in a field, and you decide that you want to be a real companion to those cows. now, what would you do? all of a sudden, that picture of god becoming man had a clarity of an index card summary. he said i got it, i got it, lee shouted. don't tell me any more, don't tell me any more. it's very clear. and he died. doug had a way of saying things that nobody else did. and the last one i will mention. this is significant to me because i happened to be with doug at this time this statement was made. the president of uganda is one, like many of the presidents in
2:45 pm
africa, who came through the bush and fought his way up. he has been, i think, an excellent president. doug has told him that i am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the father but by me. this always bothered the president of uganda. he said to doug coe, he said look, we can go out here into the bush. we have villages. they never heard of god. they never heard of jesus. are you saying that there is no way that they're going to get to heaven? doug told the president of uganda a story, an experience that he had actually experienced this revelation. when he was in the gobi desert several years ago to visit mongolian sheepherders, this is doug coe telling the story. he told them that he had a friend who was a shepherd. in fact, he told them that his friend is the greatest shepherd who ever lived. his friends knows all of the
2:46 pm
fox, even the names of the sheep. if one of the sheep gets lost, the shepherd leaves the flock to look for the sheep. the next day the mongolian sheep herders told doug during the night they decided to follow this shepherd but wanted to know his name. doug said his name was jesus. they told doug that they always knew about him but they never knew his name. and president museveni understood what they were talking about. so, you see, we -- doug had a way of explaining things that other people didn't. i was particularly blessed that for 20 years i met with doug every tuesday for an hour at 5:00. and i was a recipient of all this brilliance that this guy had in the political philosophy of jesus. i called it that. doug didn't call it that. but it's all script yally -- script yale based.
2:47 pm
what did jesus say to paul on the road to damascus. he said take my name, take my name to the kings. so doug spent all those years in every country in the world taking his name to the kings. acts 2: 42, the genesis of the small meetings we had. not many people are aware that here in the united states senate, every wednesday morning we meet in the spirit of jesus. we've been doing it ever since doug started this many years ago. this is what -- it's all scriptually based. you get together and do four things, eat together, pray together, fellowship and talk about jesus. all that was happening. i would say that he died but not until he quietly told jesus to every country around the world. and i could just say that he's -- doug is going to have a very merry christmas. however, there's one last thing i want to say that's on a little
2:48 pm
different subject. because today is a very special day. today is my little girl named kay and i got married a long time ago. these are our kids and grandkids. today is december 19, which is our 58th wedding anniversary. so i want to say kay, i still love you. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. ms. stabenow: thank you, mr. president. first to my friend from oklahoma, happy 58th anniversary. that is wonderful and you have a beautiful family. i enjoy every year getting the picture, the christmas card with your beautiful family on it. it's a wonderful milestone to celebrate today.
2:49 pm
mr. president, i'm rising today to join my voice with so many others to support young people who we call dreamers. these young people were brought to the united states as children. sometimes as babies. for many of them this country is the only home they have ever known. there's no question -- i should say upfront we need comprehensive immigration reform for our security and our econo economy. our nation's immigration system is broken. it hurts families and workers and businesses and farmers each and every day. but targeting these young people who's come to our country through their parents, their parents bringing them as children, does nothing to solve the larger issues that we need to address here in the senate, in the house. now, to remind everyone, to be
2:50 pm
eligible for the deferred action for childhood arrivals program, which we call daca, young people had to have entered the united states before their 16th birthday. they must be attending school, have graduated or earned their g.e.d. or been honorably discharged from the u.s. military. and they must not have been in trouble with the law. pretty good principles, i think, mr. president. actually for all of us in following the law, working hard, and i think when anyone does that, they should know our country has their back. those who were approved for daca were given a legal status to remain here and a work permit so that they could work and contribute to our country. we made these young people a promise, and we need to keep it. i feel very strongly that whether it's our veterans, our people in the military going to
2:51 pm
war who are protecting us every day, who are serving our country, we made them a promise that they would have health care among other promises to make sure that veterans are not at the back of any line. when somebody works all their life, they work 30 years. they may into a pension and they assume that pension is going to be there. that's another kind of promise. and this is also a promise that was made to young people that if they work hard and follow the rules and stayed out of trouble and contributed to our country, either serving in the military or going to school and working, that they would have the right to be here and to be able to contribute to our country. nationwide we know there are about 800,000 people, young people who are covered by daca. in michigan alone, we have over 10,000 young people, 10,000 young dreamers working hard,
2:52 pm
going to school. contributing to our economy and our quality of life in michigan. many of them have daca status. those are some of the numbers. however, we're not talking about numbers here. we're talking about people's lives. we're talking about 10,000 young people in michigan who are attending college, starting businesses, creating jobs, buying homes, serving in the military, and raising american children of their own. and they are proud to be here. these young people aren't numbers. they are our neighbors. and in michigan we care about our neighbors. one of these young people is named nira. she shared her story with me both last week and also again today. i'm so pleased that she and other wonderful young people are in town today to share their stories.
2:53 pm
nira was born in poland. her parents faced intense discrimination because of their different backgrounds. one was from poland. the other from amon mongolia. in 2000 when nira was only 4 years old, she and her mom were granted a visa to come to the united states. nira excelled in school. she graduated from high school with honors and attended the university of detroit mercy. she also found ways to give back, leading service trips around the country and volunteering for organizations, including the humanitarian alliance of michigan, world medical relief, and children's hospital of michigan. earlier this year nira graduated with a bachelor's degree in buy local and a minor in leadership. and she was awarded one of detroit mercy's highest honors, presented to the undergraduate student who best exemplifies the mission of the university.
2:54 pm
leadership and service. another one of our wonderful young people is juan. he was brought to the united states by his parents when he was 1 year old, just a baby. he's known no other country. when juan was in high school, he tried to enlist in the marines to serve his country. he longed to serve the country that had given him so many opportunities. his plans changed, however, when a recruiter told him that he would likely be deported after he had served his country. instead, juan got a job hoping to save up money for college. the daca program allowed him to get a job permit and a better job. today he's a prelaw student at wayne state university, hopes to one day become an immigration lawyer. juan said this. i believe in america. i was raised here.
2:55 pm
i love this country. this is my home. nira and juan and so many young people are great examples of why we need to pass the dream act. we need to extend daca as soon as possible. i'd love to see it happen right now today. young people are waiting and have been waiting, are in horrible situations because they don't know what's going to happen. these young people have done everything right and they don't know whether or not they're going to be ripped away from their family and sent to a country they may never have been in. they want to be here contributing to america. they want to earn their degrees, start businesses, raise families, and get back to -- give back to their communities. we need comprehensive immigration reform. that is for sure. but first, we need to pass the bipartisan dream act as quickly
2:56 pm
as possible. these young dreamers have done nothing wrong. they've done everything right. they've done everything they have been asked to do. it's time to make sure our country stands up and keeps its promises to them. that's what our neighbors would do. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. i would suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:
2:57 pm
2:58 pm
2:59 pm
quorum call:
3:00 pm
3:01 pm
3:02 pm
3:03 pm
3:04 pm
3:05 pm
3:06 pm
3:07 pm
mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the senate will receive a message from the house of representatives. the messenger: mr. president, a message from the house of representatives. the clerk: mr. president. the presiding officer: madam clerk. the clerk: the house has agreed to the conference report to accompany h.r. 1, a bill to
3:08 pm
provide reconciliation pursuant to titles 2 and 5 of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018, in which the concurrence of the senate is requested. the presiding officer: the message will be received. mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: i move to proceed to the conference report to accompany h.r. 1. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote:
3:09 pm
3:10 pm
3:11 pm
3:12 pm
3:13 pm
3:14 pm
3:15 pm
vote: vote: vote:
3:16 pm
3:17 pm
3:18 pm
3:19 pm
3:20 pm
3:21 pm
3:22 pm
3:23 pm
3:24 pm
3:25 pm
3:26 pm
3:27 pm
3:28 pm
3:29 pm
3:30 pm
3:31 pm
3:32 pm
3:33 pm
vote:
3:34 pm
3:35 pm
3:36 pm
3:37 pm
3:38 pm
3:39 pm
3:40 pm
3:41 pm
3:42 pm
3:43 pm
3:44 pm
3:45 pm
vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or to change their vote? if not, the yeas are 51, the
3:46 pm
nays are 48. the motion to proceed is agreed to. the motion to proceed having been agreed to, the chair lays before the senate the conference report to accompany h.r. 1, which the clerk will report. the clerk: the committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the two houses on the amendment of the senate to the bill h.r. 1 to provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles 2 and 5 of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018, having met, have agreed that the house recede from its disagreement to the amendment of the senate and agree to the same with an amendment, and the senate agree to the same. signed by a majority of the conferees on the part of both houses. mr. enzi: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. enzi: mr. president, i have three requests for committees to meet during today's session of
3:47 pm
the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leader. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. enzi: mr. president. we stand today on the precipice of the most sweeping change to our amazing tax system in over 30 years. this is an historic moment as this distinguished body begins final consideration of the tax cuts and jobs act, tax reform that will help boost america's economy, create more jobs, and leave more money in people's paychecks. the last time we considered tax reform similar to this magnitude was 1986. to help remind us how much our country, its economy, and the people have changed since that time, let's review some of the events of that year. in 1986, the dow jones industrial average closed at
3:48 pm
1,895, sure that 20,000 would never be broken, and it wasn't until after the last election. it now stands at over 24,000. a gallon of gas cost just 89 cents. today it's close to 2.50. we still used landlines to phone our loved ones. iconic movies such as "top gun" and" aliens" opened. americans were watching tv shows like "dynasty" and" hill street blues." the associated press chose nba star larry bird as one of the athletes of the year. and president ronald reagan signed into law the tax reform act of 1986, which ushered in a deep tax rate cut for american families and an overhaul of our complicated tax code. when he signed the bill, reagan commented on the length of the journey and noted that some people thought it would never happen. today, too, some have asserted that the tax reform either cannot or should not happen, but
3:49 pm
as our strongly optimistic president said in 1986, and as i continue to believe, the american people, quote, haven't made this the freest country and the mightiest economic force on this planet by shrinking from challenges." end quote. reagan noted, quote, this country was founded on faith in the individual, not groups or classes, but faith in resources and bounty of each and every separate human soul. our founding fathers designed a democratic form of government to enlist the individuals' energies, end quote. for that reason, i want to remind my colleagues about the hard work that brought us here. it's a journey that's been years in the making, under the leadership of both sides of the aisle. it's one that we started and will finish for the benefit of the american people and the help of the u.s. economy. i'm proud of the work of the finance and budget committees,
3:50 pm
and i have had the honor to play a role with both. the finance committee held more than 70 hearings on how the tax code can be improved and streamlined to work better for all americans. almost three years ago, finance chairman hatch and ranking member wyden convened bipartisan tax reform working groups to analyze challenges of our outdated tax code and develop policy recommendations for comprehensive tax reform. the conclusions reached by these groups helped identify the issues for reform and shaped the contours of the legislation that we're considering now. it's worth noting that the entire fiscal year 2018 budget reconciliation process has been open, transparent, and subject to regular order, starting with the passage of the senate budget resolution. the senate budget committee marked up the budget over two days and accepted amendments from both sides of the aisle to make the resolution stronger. in fact, for the first time
3:51 pm
ever, the minority received a copy of the chairman's budget document five days prior to the start of the markup. according to many of my colleagues, it was one of the most transparent budget resolution markups in history. the budget resolution, complete with adopted reconciliation instructions, was then debated on the floor. this was an open floor process that allowed every senator the opportunity to offer and vote on amendments to improve the resolution before its final passage. last month, the senate finance committee held a four-day markup before approving tax reform legislation designed to modernize our tax code. the markup lasted 23 hours 34 minutes over the course of those four days. of the more than 350 amendments filed, 69 were considered in committee. amendments offered by both democrats and republicans were adopted. since then, both chambers of
3:52 pm
congress have passed similar versions of the tax cuts and jobs act, and over the past two weeks, conferees worked tirelessly to resolve and bridge the differences between the two bills and come to an agreement on a final piece of legislation. in this chamber, the legislation reflects the outstanding work and leadership of finance chairman hatch and energy committee chairman murkowski in developing legislative recommendations that adhere to the budget resolutions -- budget resolution's reconciliation instructions, and i thank them for their efforts. i also thank my senate colleagues who earlier this month supported senate passage of the tax cuts and jobs act and whose advice and consent during the conference has shaped the final bill. the legislation is truly a reflection of the broad range and consensus of members who engaged with this process. throughout my work on this bill, i have carried with me the many lessons i have learned from when i owned and operated a small
3:53 pm
business or when i worked as an accountant. i have been led by one singular purpose -- to help improve the lives of millions of hardworking american families, especially including the residents of my own state of wyoming. i am pleased that the outcome of our work -- pleased at the outcome of our work because i believe it includes meaningful changes that will help individuals and families struggling to move up the economic ladder. the tax plan includes reforms that will help grow the economy, that will create more jobs, and that will simplify taxes. it provides american workers and families with an across-the-board tax cut and puts more money in the people's pockets. it lets americans have a greater say as to how to use their hard-earned money. the changes will help small business in our communities thrive and encourage the largest multinational companies to remain in the united states,
3:54 pm
investing profits here instead of overseas. not a bad wish list for santa. under the plan, americans will receive tax savings from reduced tax rates, tax savings from a higher standard deduction, which includes a larger zero tax bracket for low-income individuals and increases many people's tax refunds. it also includes a child tax credit that doubles in size to $2,000 to help struggling families. all this while preserving important deductions for medical expenses, charities, homeowners, and state and local taxes. our farmers and ranchers will receive stronger protections from the reach of the death tax to help them more easily pass on their businesses to future generations, eliminating a double taxation. businesses small and large will benefit from a range of tax breaks, including lower tax breaks, expanded opportunities
3:55 pm
to expense the purchase of capital assets, a new 20% deduction for many unincorporated businesses, and international tax reforms to give the u.s.-headquartered global companies a strong competitive footing in the global marketplace. these are changes you can take to the bank. now it's time for us to act. it's time for us to modernize our outdated tax code so that our nation can remain competitive in the 21st century economy. the code as it now stands hurts american workers and hampers economic growth. along with reforms to the code, this bill will also promote economic growth. for too long, some have accepted the presumption of a u.s. economy that won't grow as strongly as it has in the past. as a supporter of this bill, i reject that false narrative. better tax policy will boost the value of everything we produce, and this will mean more revenue for the federal government. i'm tired of the accusations
3:56 pm
that republican budget hawks -- and that definitely includes me -- are willing to throw in the towel and accept a $1.5 trillion deficit over the next ten years. i am still a deficit hawk, and here's why. claims to the contrary that this bill will go unpaid for are based on an incomplete analysis of the tax bill. we have a congressional budget office tasked with impartially evaluating any legislation that we do. unfortunately, its evaluations are tied to static scoring. static scoring. that means it's evaluated without considering the underlying economic effects of these changes. let me repeat that. the congressional budget office is tied to static scoring. that means it's evaluated without considering the underlying economic effects of these changes. the problem really isn't how much revenue we'll have under the new bill.
3:57 pm
i believe it will increase revenue as the tax cut did in the 1980's. the problem is spending. we never make budget cuts. in washington, a cut in the budget brings screams if an agency or program doesn't get as much as it requested, even if it gets more than it ever had before. that's not a budget cut, but that's how it works in washington. if we continue this way, we won't ever get our spending in line. for years, i have tried to institute the penny plan where we just cut one penny in real cuts from where we have been. it gets lip service, but not votes. it's a lot easier to give away money than it is to take away money, even pennies. so we need a new approach. we need to grow the economy. we need businesses to do well so more tax money will come in. we need individuals to make more so more tax money will come in. that's been done before with tax
3:58 pm
cuts. unfortunately, when the tax cuts are performed to provide more revenue, we spent twice what we brought in. so here's what i have done as budget chairman. a good economy brings in more tax money. our economy has been limping along. last year, it grew at a mere 1.9% g.d.p. g.d.p. is private sector growth, not government growth the norm for the united states is 3.2% private sector growth. not like we saw during the past eight years when that growth remained below 2%. in fact, since this president got elected, the growth has been 3.2% already, and in the fourth quarter of 2017, we almost hit 4%. a lot of hope in america. every .1% increase in g.d.p., that productivity brings in
3:59 pm
$273 billion in taxes over ten years. if we could raise that anemic 1.9% to a mere 2.4% g.d.p., we can recover the deficit effect of the tax cuts. if we can bring up the productivity in the private sector -- that's the g.d.p. -- to its norm of 3.2%, we will pay down significant debt over the ten-year window. the council of economic advisors and some 130 economists have agreed with me. they say the balancing point of 2.4% is way too low, and 3.2% g.d.p. is much more reasonable. some even predict 4% growth to our economy. that's how you can be a deficit hawk and cut taxes. you just have to bet america can do better. actually, we're just betting that we can be as good as we used to be.
4:00 pm
our american spirit should say we can do a lot better than that. the tax cuts and jobs act will help our economy expand. it will provide tax relief to hardworking americans and make changes to our tax code that businesses large and small need to boost the economy and create jobs. but ultimately we know that increased revenues alone are not going to solve all our long-term budget and debt problems because washington's real problem isn't revenue. washington has a spending problem. i urge my colleagues today to finish the task before us. let's pass this bill to make critical and long overdue changes to our tax code that will jumpstart our economy. our country needs it. hardworking american families need it, and they deserve to have the opportunity to make more choices about how their hard earned money should be used. in closing, i again remind my colleagues of the words of president reagan. quote, let's not let this
4:01 pm
magnificent moment slip away. tax relief is in sight. let's make it a reality. we can do it. and if you help, we will do it this year. end quote. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. mr. wyden: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: thank you, mr. president. mr. president and colleagues, today the republican party officially turns its back on america's middle class. our constituents believe congress must require multinational corporations to pay their fair share, ensure the middle class has the chance to truly get ahead and protect medicare, medicaid, and social security. instead republicans are dolling out new giveaways to the multinational corporations,
4:02 pm
raising taxes on the middle class after a brief sugar high, and taking away the medicare and social security guarantees for the future. it takes hard work, mr. president, to muscle a tax plan this unpopular and destructive through the congress. writing it is the easy part, especially when you're just checking off the far right tax policy wish list. normally the hard part is sticking to your baseless talking points, ignoring the public outcry, and turning a blind eye to the loads of evidence that your plan is designed to fail. this process has certainly been as far from normal as it can
4:03 pm
get. now, the bill comes at an enormous cost and represents a huge missed opportunity. for just some perspective, the $1.5 trillion republicans plan to borrow for their tax bill would fund the children's health insurance program for 915 years. let me repeat that. 915 years -- 950 years of a lifeline for families that are walking on an economic tightrope with chip. that's what you could get for the $1.5 trillion republicans are borrowing to pay for their tax bill. spent on infrastructure, it would build towering new monuments in the tradition of the hoover dam, the golden gate bridge, and the interstate
4:04 pm
highway system, aimed permanently at helping the middle class. it would give long struggling americans meaningful chance to get ahead. but this isn't real tax reform or a serious solution to the major policy challenges of our time. this is a stimulus plan for shareholder goodies and executive compensation. republicans are ignoring today decades of evidence that trickle-down economics is a fantasy. republicans have cut taxes bit by bit for multinational corporations and high flyers, but we've seen wages stay flat. the benefits of those previous tax cuts never trickle down. in this debate, republicans
4:05 pm
seeght on a -- seethe on a talking point about workers getting a $4,000 average rate hike if the bill becomes law. but that figure is based on a made up revenue-neutral plan that was never on paper. it is fake math, plain and simple. now, mr. president, i want to issue a warning to the public today. passing this bill guarantees years and years of instability in our tax code and painful, drawn out battles over tax policy here in the congress. because of the pure partisanship and the recklessness of the process that went into drafting this legislation, the bill is already full of mistakes that
4:06 pm
are going to have drastic, unintended consequences. down on k street, they're already working overtime to exploit new special interest loopholes. the giant pass-through tax loophole which has been widely covered in the business pages is just the beginning. there are going to be big, new incentives for multinational corporations to ship jobs overseas, and with that you get more factory towns and mill towns going dark. fewer americans can have the kind of reliable manufacturing jobs that support a family. there's going to be extraordinary new pressures on state and local finances, and that's going to hamper their ability to build new roads and bridges and schools.
4:07 pm
and they're going to be -- and there are going to be new and annual fights over the stop and go tax policies. around here they're called tax extenders. and what they do again is ensure lack of predictability, uncertainty we need for innovation and growth. all the evidence says that many of the policies in this bill are going to be a nightmare to administer. this means that with this bill, tax cheats get a holiday gift and have the opportunity to create new ripoffs. and what this means for the typical family who just wants to file and get a refund on time, for that typical family there are going to be more hassles because the government is going to have to devote more time to try to catch the cheats. mr. president, the defining
4:08 pm
economic challenge of our time is guaranteeing that the middle class and those that strive to be middle class have a chance to get ahead. our country is home to the world's most powerful economic engine and it generates levels of prosperity that have never been seen before. but working families and the middle class have been on the outside of the winner's circle for generations. the republican plan isn't an answer to that challenge. in fact, it almost certainly makes the problem worse. at a time when the middle class need fundamental permanent reforms that give them a chance to get ahead, the best -- the best the republican plan offers is a sugar high. and the fact is it won't be long before the sugar high wears off and tens of millions of
4:09 pm
hardworking americans will find themselves paying higher taxes, higher taxes as a result of this bill. corporations on the other hand reap the benefits of permanent tax breaks and a loophole-ridden system that in my view just begs to be gamed. the trail of broken promises that republicans have left behind in this process is long and unforgettable. now, the president said his tax bill would not benefit his family or people like him. that's untrue. the treasury secretary said there would be no tax cut for the upper class. he was happy to have that called the mnuchin rule. that is untrue. republicans in congress said the principle feature, the main feature of their plan would center on a middle-class tax
4:10 pm
cut. that's untrue. republicans said their bill would make the system dramatically simpler. that's untrue. republicans said their bill would allow families to file their taxes on a postcard. that's untrue. republicans said their plan would pay for itself. that, too, is untrue. even many of the promises republican leaders made to their own colleagues have been broken, but there's one that they're not trying to hide. the deficit hawks have flown back to town, and they're already stirring up a battle over entitlement reform. and they're going to look at a variety of health programs and programs that are a lifeline to millions of americans. but our people are not thrown off by the washington lingo. they know that when republicans
4:11 pm
say they're coming after entitlement reform, they've got the knives out for medicare, medicaid, social security, antihunger programs, education funding, and more. now, our distinguished colleague from wyoming, chairman enzi, was talking about how dynamic scoring would take care of things and it was just off base to be concerned about these deficits because dynamic scoring would make everything turn out fine. the reality is all of the independent analyses have shown that this bill comes up way short in terms of projected revenues. the tax foundation, for example, which is not exactly a left-wing operation said the republicans were hundreds of billions of dollars short.
4:12 pm
what the joint committee on taxation said is that the republican plan was a trillion dollars short. now, let's put it in context. remember that steve mnuchin said that this plan would not only pay for itself but it would leave a trillion dollars left over. and yet both the tax foundation and the joint committee on taxation says that this bill comes light years away from paying for itself. now, colleagues, it didn't have to be this way. i see the distinguished chairman of the finance committee on the floor. as i've indicated, democrats believe that the tax code is a rotting mess and has to be fixed. for years there's been bipartisan interest in getting
4:13 pm
tax reform done right. 17 democratic senators came together, even in a last-ditch effort to try to bring some partisanship into the process -- some bipartisanship into the process and lay out some ideas for some common ground. i commend that group led by our colleagues from west virginia, senator manchin and our colleague from virginia, senator kaine. i've written two comprehensive bipartisan tax reform bills. first with senator judd gregg and then with a member of the president's cabinet, dan coates. now, the majority leader likes to talk about how nobody is interested on this side in bipartisanship. when democrats laid out their principles, the first think we said is how important it ought to be, that we focus on bipartisanship. and that letter was shared with
4:14 pm
the republican leadership. then you have the group of moderates. then you have the actual bills that were written. so this idea advanced by the republican leadership that there was no interest in bipartisanship just does not resemble reality. and by the way, a lot of senators here know that we've got a pretty current example, the 2015 tax bill. just a kind of model of what you can do. both sides had good ideas. bipartisanship is not about taking each other's dumb ideas. anybody can do that but the 2015 bill, my colleagues on this side said the earned income tax credit ought to be expanded. and we wanted the child credit and the american opportunity tax credit. and the republicans led by my distinguished colleague, senator hatch, had some pretty good
4:15 pm
ideas, too. they wanted to make the research and development credit permanent and the expensing provision, so important for farmers and rural communities. he had some ideas on business incentives. so what we said is we're going to find some common ground here. we're going to take good ideas from both sides. and the tragedy of this bill is that republicans wouldn't build on the good work of the 2015 tax legislation for good ideas -- where good ideas were accepted from both sides. this time around there was zero outreach from republicans on this issue. not one moment when republicans actually shared even a piece of paper or a document about ideas that might bring both sides together. in fact, you can go all the way back to november 2016, they
4:16 pm
were still putting the voting machines back into storage when the first whispers began about tax reform happening through a completely partisan process. now in coffee shops across america, most folks are not talking about budget reconciliation, but budget reconciliation is washington lingo for saying we aren't going to do this right. we're just going to make it our way. partisan. no effort to try to bring people together. and after those whispers in november of 2016 senator enzi, the chairman of the budget committee, my good friend chairman hatch, everybody's on board. and then by december, the majority leader in december of 2016 made it official. we weren't going to build on the history of successful tax reform which requires bringing both
4:17 pm
sides together. the majority leader said we're going with reconciliation in partisanship. reconciliation is a full-on rejection of the history of successful tax reform, and it's a full on rejection of bipartisanship. it's the majority saying the minority, as was the case, we just don't want your ideas because we don't need your votes. and when you look at the way this debate played out, it's obvious that has been exactly the approach my republican colleagues have taken. the administration's first tax outline which was shorter than your typical drugstore receipt, didn't contain an ounce of democratic input. then what we had with the republicans are the closed door meetings with what they called the big six, the republican-only group to turn an outline into a framework for a
4:18 pm
bill. the framework they released which was roughly the same size as your typical drugstore receipt still reflected no democratic ideas. everybody knew that you do it this kind of way and the public's going to catch on. they're going to see this as a con job. they're going to catch on that this is going to give the middle class the shaft. so they decided we've got to move at the speed of lit. that's what the house did. here in the senate, republicans dropped their plan late at night just before veterans day weekend, and the finance committee was supposed to start the process of voting on it a few days later. there was a whole new version of the bill introduced in the middle of our markup, and it turned the tax bill into a health care bill. a health care bill with a fresh attack on the affordable care act. there was another set of last-second changes introduced literally minutes before the final committee votes happened. the bill makes $10 trillion in
4:19 pm
tax policy changes, and there was never a single hearing on the specifics of the legislation. let me just repeat that, mr. president. i want the public to know that. there was never a single hearing, not one, on the specifics of this legislation. you're going to hear on all points by my colleagues on the other side to say there were 70 hearings. well, sure, there were people who would come in from time to time and talk about issues. there wasn't one hearing, not one, on the specifics of the legislation. on the senate floor the republicans played hike the ball for days until they dropped the final version of their bill late on night on a friday. two full days of debate had already passed, and the final bill was a mystery. i stood here hour after hour
4:20 pm
asking where the bill was. an economy-transforming bill. the tax hike on tens of millions of middle-class americans, and yet republicans kept it hidden until the very last second. when it was revealed to the public, i saw my colleague, senator durbin from illinois, holding it up with illegible notes scrawled in margins. there wasn't anywhere near enough time for any member of the body to read the bill and grasp each of its provisions. even the conference committee was an exercise in reckless partisanship. news reports said republicans had agreed on a final bill. but they were empty-handed at the only official conference meeting. so what was going on at this so-called conference meeting? and this was, i guess, a reality show version of a conference committee, is the
4:21 pm
conferees were supposed to ask questions about out-of-date plans from the other body in the senate while the actual final bill was still locked behind closed doors. the chairman didn't allow any motions or any amendments, just like every other step in the process, this was a sham debate. and now the bill is a few hours away from passage. mr. president, i close with this. this bill has the power to reshape the american economy in far-reaching and unforeseen ways. it has the power to send families into economic hardship. it has the power to threaten this country's ability to hold these special promises, to uphold these special promises of medicare, medicaid, and social security. and this bill was written in the
4:22 pm
shadows, written in the dark, billions and billions of dollars worth of changes tumbling out at the last second. the result is special interest influence and hushed conversation in back rooms. no public hearings on the specifics of this legislation. and people wonder why the american people oppose it. republicans have chosen to ignore them. chosen to ignore them. what's happening is undemocratic. it is wrong. and i'm here to say this vote will not be forgotten. mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. hatch: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from utah is recognized. mr. hatch: mr. president, the senate will soon vote on the conference report for h.r. 1, the tax cuts and jobs act. i've waited a long time to give
4:23 pm
this final statement in support of tax reform -- mr. president, i ask for -- the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. mr. hatch: i ask for -- the presiding officer: the sergeant at arms will restore order in the gallery. the senator will suspend. hatch hatch he has an interesting --
4:24 pm
mr. hatch: he has an interesting way of trying to get his point of view across. it shouldn't b done here in this august body. the senate will soon vote on h.r. 1, the tax cuts and jobs act. i've waited a long time to give this final statement in support of tax reform legislation. as you know, mr. president, i've been in the senate for a little while. i've been party to a number of major legislative achievements like the passage of the americans with disabilities act, the creation of the chip program -- the child health insurance program -- and the religious freedom restoration act, which has given, just to name just a few. these are landmark bills, and i've had a lot to do with them. the legislation before us is as important and far-reaching as anything i've been privileged to work on. it's beyond gratifying to see the senate reach this point and i look forward to finally seeing real tax reform legislation signed into law.
4:25 pm
i apologize for this type of intemperate action and mouthing off inside of this august chamber. people feel very deeply about these things on both sides of the issues. passage of this important bill will be historic. the combination of years of work for people -- by people in both parties, in both chambers, and on both sides of pennsylvania avenue. many of us in this body have been waiting for years for this opportunity, and millions of americans outside of this body have been waiting even longer. it's no secret, mr. president, that our tax code is broken. members of both parties acknowledge this. if you walked across the country and asked americans of all backgrounds an and ideologies, u wouldn't find being who would be
4:26 pm
willing to defend the status quo. in fact, i don't think you would find anybody. there is one apt phrase my good friend senator wyden uses to describe our tax code. he calls it, quote, a dying carcass. unquote. indeed our tax code is dying and rotting. it has hampered job creation, wage growth, investment in the united states, and has chased american companies to foreign shores. i don't know how it could more harmful than it has been. it has also given foreign companies a leg up on u.s. businesses in the global marketplace, leading to a record number of foreign takeovers and inversions. the bill before us will address these problems and help us turn the ship around. our legislation will reduce the corporate tax rate to 21%, something that's long overdue. the lowest level in the modern history of the united states,
4:27 pm
placing our country slightly below the average of industrialized countries. these changes will once again give american companies a competitive edge and bring more businesses back home instead of losing them the way we've been losing them. hundreds of economists have said that our bill will boost economic growth, and numerous companies have indicated that once our bill becomes law, they will invest heavily in expansion and job creation right here in the united states of america. in addition, as the joint committee on taxation has made clear, reducing the corporate tax rate has distributional effects that go beyond the companies themselves, their high-ranking officers or even their richest shareholders. in fact j.c.t., the joint committee on taxation, estimates that workers bear 25%
4:28 pm
of the corporate tax rate. and other economists have found that this number can reach as high as 75%. this means no matter how you slice it, americans will see their wages go up when corporate tax rates go down. further, over the last few decades we've seen a massive expansion of pension and retirement assets, much of which are invested in corporate stocks. while many of my colleagues like to decry any business for merely earning a profit, the truth of the matter is that the continued rise of corporate profits has significantly expanded the wealth of middle-class workers and taxpayers who have continually set aside funds for the future. a representative from the tax policy center testified before the finance committee in the spring of last year. at that hearing he stated that 37% of corporate stock ownership
4:29 pm
was held in retirement plan accounts. 37%. that was the largest share of overall stock ownership, and that statistic syncs up with the distribution tables put up by the nonpartisan joint committee on taxation. for all these reasons -- lowering the corporate tax rate has been a bipartisan goal for over a decade now. i said it before, presidents clinton and obama, senators wyden and schumer and most of the other democrats on the senate finance committee have at some point in the recent past endorsed a significant reduction in the u.s. corporate tax rate. our bill will achieve this bipartisan goal and place our country well within the mainstream among our international competitors. this is a good thing.
4:30 pm
not just for business, businesses and rich stockholders, but for the working middle-class families as well. let's be clear, this bill's chief focus is about helping the middle class. i know there's a tendency among some in this body, in which chamber to act and speak as though all money in this country inherently belongs to the government. i won't speak for everyone, but those of us who have worked on this bill tend to think differently. aside from business reforms that will grow our economy, increase wages, and create jobs, our bill will lower individual tax rates across the board, allowing hardworking americans to keep more of their money. and our bill we also nearly double the standard deduction for individuals and married couples. this feature will significantly reduce the burden of tax filing for millions of middle-class
4:31 pm
families and decrease even further the overall tax liability of millions more. for the first time in more than 30 years, nearly every american will get more money back by just filling out an -- filing out an easy form. this fulfills our goal of simplifying the tax code. for individuals who are concerned about being able to itemize, again we believe the number of people with this concern will decrease dramatically under our bill. we retain a number of key provisions that benefit many in the middle class. for example, this historic legislation will allow individuals and families to continue to claim deductions for state and local taxes up to $10,000 a year. it will keep in place with relatively minor adjustments the deduction for mortgage interest. and americans who itemize and
4:32 pm
want to deduct their charitable contributions will be free to do so. this has made america great and has helped us at the same time to be more charitable. we're also expanding the child tax credit with this bill doubling it from $1,000 to $2,000 per child and making the credit far more refundable than ever before. the adoption credit will stay in place. the deduction for medical expenses will still be available. credits in assistance for students and their families will be untouched. we made all of these changes. and when necessary preserved current law with an eye toward helping the middle class. i no he a number of my colleagues -- i know a number of my colleagues like to argue that this bill will have different results. so let's look at the numbers. under this bill a typical family of four earning the median
4:33 pm
family income of $73,000 will see their taxes go down by more than half, about 58%. mr. president, that number means something, more than just a simple percentage. it means that an average american family will be able to keep $2,058, $2,058 more of their own earnings next year. that's a mortgage payment. a downpayment for a car or several months worth of groceries. what about a single parent? under our plan a single parent with one child making $41,000 will see their taxes slashed by nearly 73%. that's almost a three quarter reduction in tax liability. that means a savings in more than -- and more than $1,300 over the course of a year. that could be a month of day care expenses, multiple car
4:34 pm
payments, on a family vacation. these are things that matter to american families, mr. president. and they well should. but our friends on the other side have been so caught up in partisan politics that they've decided to ignore the americans who will benefit from this legislation. i think it started with the election of president trump and the retention of the senate control by republicans. their base protested, occupied and disrupted the transfer of power from president obama to president trump. here on the hill the, quote, resistance, unquote, was in full effect right off the bat with a coordinated effort to stall nominations in committee, which included unprecedented boycotts and refusals to meet with nominees. in his -- and it's only gone downhill from there. while we heard words from our
4:35 pm
friends on the other side about participating in tax reform, their actions showed otherwise. i don't know how they can stand here and make some of the arguments they do. unprecedented process demands were made. resistance was the plan. and that plan was carried out. now we hear about massive tax cuts for the very rich and huge breaks for corporations, but these claims fall apart when you look at the facts. again, this isn't unchartered territory for my friends on the other side. accusing republicans of hating the poor and loving the rich is one of their go-to moves. i've seen it for over 40 years. every time you turn around it's one of their go-to moves. it has nothing to do with reality. but i do think they're getting more desperate and vicious in their attacks because they regret their own decisions to
4:36 pm
sit out of this endeavor. and that's precisely how it happened, mr. president. our colleagues were apparently so preoccupied with denying president trump and congressional republicans any success that they chose not to engage and instead to sit in the peanut gallery throwing out baseless attacks. as i've said literally dozens of times over the past few years, i wish the democrats had joined us in this process, put aside their ultimatums and preconditions and helped to advance policies that they've claimed to support for years now. but we are where we are and while the bill before us includes a number of ideas and proposals the democrats have supported, we are prepared to pass it without their votes, if that's what it takes. there have been some democrats who have worked with us, but they've been few and far between. once again this is a historic bill, mr. president. i'm proud of the work we've done
4:37 pm
on the finance committee here on the floor and in conference to get us to this point. i again invite our friends on the other side to also support the bill. i'm proud of my colleagues who have put in so much effort to get us here, and i'm proud of the staff on capitol hill who have labored day and night to assist in this endeavor. like i said, mr. president, this legislation has been years in the making. i urge all of my colleagues to support the conference report and help us send it to the president's desk. you will not regret it. those who support this will not regret it. now, mr. president, i think we ought to get rid of this hatred for donald trump that currently exists in this country and in this body. i think we should give the man a chance. he hasn't even been president for a year yet.
4:38 pm
give him a chance. even though he hasn't been president for a year yet, we've had some amazing changes in this country for the better. and i think we could have many more. what really interests me is that donald trump six or seven years ago was working with democrats as well as republicans. he offered to work with the democrats on these matters. they have not taken up the off offer. instead it's as though they're still bitter because he beat their candidate for president. i'd like to have us get over that type of petty politics and see what we can do to work together. heaven knows on the finance committee, i believe we have good democrats on that committee as well as good republicans, and i think we can work together. i have to say i don't think we
4:39 pm
have as well as we should, but i think we can. and i'm hopeful that we will. this is an important bill. it's a bill that really does need to pass. it's a bill that will help this country. it's a bill that will help the middle class. in fact, it's going to help everybody but it certainly will help the middle class most of all. mr. president, i hope our -- put aside politics on both sides and come together to support this bill which literally could help save this country an awful lot of pain over the next number of years. and give the government the kind of resources that it needs to be able to do what the federal government needs to do for its people. i think we can. people in this body know that i've spent years here.
4:40 pm
i've been here longer than any other republican that i know of. and i have the legislative record to back it up, a record that has included working with democrats almost every step of the way. so i'm offering to make sure we work together but i haven't seen it on the other side. can they get over the bitterness that they have? we've heard this loudmouth up in the gallery who has no good sense and a total lack of etiquette and a total lack of respect for this government and this senate. if i was on his side, i'd be humiliated. because he was just a big loudmouth that didn't mean a doggone thing. unfortunately, i think there are
4:41 pm
more people like that out there who are so bitter that they'll raise these type of issues without really trying to work together. now, i have to say i'm won who has a reputation for working together. i'm chairman of the finance committee. i've enjoyed my work with the distinguished democrat leader on the finance committee, senator wyden. i care for him i care for the other democrats on the committee as well as all of our republicans. we work pretty well together, but it's getting harder and harder to work together when all we see are screaming and shouting because they can't get their way because they're no longer in the majority.
4:42 pm
i hope they get over that. i hope they start working with us. and if they will, we can do an awful lot of good things for this country. and we can bring people together across this whole country, people who right now are divided because they don't know what to do. they see us screaming and shouting around here and a total lack of willingness to get together. well, i'd like to change it. i'm open to changing it. but this bill that we have is a very, very important bill and we need to pass it. and my friends on the other side need to realize that. and i hope we'll get some of them to vote for it. they know it's right. deep down they know it's right. they may not be everything they would like themselves. it's not everything i would like myself. but it's a doggone good bill and
4:43 pm
something that could really help this country pull out of the mess that it's in. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. isakson: mr. president, am i next? i see the distinguished senator from washington on the floor. would she like to be -- i'd ask unanimous consent that after i speak, that she -- the presiding officer: without objection. mr. isakson: with the exception of broken glass, it looks like that works fine. mr. president, i'd like to take a moment and commend senator orrin hatch. you know, i listened to the debate over this bill. not just today but for the better part of three years i've been a member of the finance committee. i've never heard a more dignified, deliberate, intelligent delivery on any subject than we all just heard from orrin hatch on the tax
4:44 pm
bill. regardless of your politics, regardless of where you're from, it's good to know that america has dignified statesmen like orrin hatch who take the tough issues, simplify them, get people to join hands, work together, and pass what's right for the american people. and i'm glad the american people are going to get to see that over the next couple of days, and i publicly want to thank senator hatch for all that he's done during the last three years. in the three years on this committee, i've seen us republican and democratic committee and subcommittee work on every facet of the tax code to simplify changes down to doable amounts and doable jobs. i've seen everybody have input. i've seen everybody work together. sure, we've had differences. senator hatch has always kept the mainstream there, kept his hand on the tiller and saw to it we never lost sight of what we need to do which is reform our tax code. i want to commend senator hatch and senator enzi as well for the
4:45 pm
work he's done on the budget committee to get us to this point and the unsung heroes that all of us know about, our staffs that we cannot do without, jay, mark on the finance committee have been outstanding and have made this thing work and i commend them for their work. on my staff i could not have done without monica mcgwire and jay schultzman, and others, who all worked hard to make sure that we made the right decisions for the people of georgia. i'm very proud to be a part of the senate and will prove to be a historic day in the future. there are a lot of nay sayers saying that it will not work. i want to for just a minute talk about what i think this tax bill means for the american people, for the folks who voted for me to come represent them and for what's going to happen in the years ahead. i had a reporter stop me while
4:46 pm
coming to the floor. he said, senator, where are you going to find the $1.48 trillion that its costing us by passing the tax cut. i said, i'll be willing to bet you we will take in more money because of a dynamic economy than we will lose because of a single cut. there are some people whose thought process is tunnel vision. they don't understand that tax policies drive decisions. there are those who think about leaving america because of our tax rate and now deciding to change because of the new change. don't underestimate the power of the territorial tax change this makes for american business. a lot of c.e.o.'s who go to the stockholder meetings have to go with a game plan to raise the return on their stock to have people invest in their company. unfortunately the easiest way to
4:47 pm
raise the return on your stock today would be a domestic american company and move your company out of the united states, to ireland or someplace else, to a lower tax rate. you can put more money on the table for the stockholder, but it could be bad for your company and bad for the american people. now that we have a territorial system, you can come to america if you're located there or come to america if you don't. we won't have companies moving their companies to new headquarters to get a lower tax rate. we will have more coming to the united states because the tax system we have is fair and equitable for economic development and building growth. on the personal side, you really can't argue with doubling the exemption, you can't argue with increasing the child tax credit, you can't argue with simplifying the tax process itself and the filing of taxes, you can't argue with lowering the rates, you
4:48 pm
can't really argue all of this because this is better for the american people and their pocketbook. in the long run it is better for them, their children, and grandchildren in terms of employment. i have eight grandchildren, the oldest just graduated from college and the youngest is nine. i hope to see them go to work, raise families. what we have done will make it easier for them to find employment for the kids and peace of mind because they live in a country that's vibrant and true. for those who ask, what are you going to do with the money that you're giving up. i don't deal with static scoring. i deal with dynamic scoring. when i ran a company, i made business decisions where there was places to grow and positive growth ahead. this change in the tax code, this opportunity that we have does all of those things. do i know exactly what will
4:49 pm
happen? no. i am willing to bet my vote, and have already in the committee, and will later tonight, i will bet on the american people, the american worker, and the american entrepreneur, i will bet on them with a tax code that is better for them and expand their personal opportunity. i will bet on them that they are willing to move forward with a better tax code for all the country. i'm make my bet on them that their children and grandchildren will have the opportunity they've had as well. chairman hatch, thank you for what you have done to make this opportunity come about, to the distinguished senator from washington, unfortunately the senator we're losing from alabama in the next few weeks, thank you for what you have done for this legislation. did we make any mistakes? maybe. but you never make mistakes when you're trying to do the right thing. you never make mistakes when you try to do the good thing. you never make a mistake when you take a risk. when you take a risk is at the
4:50 pm
end of a rainbow, which is more jobs, more opportunity and a better america for our children and grandchildren. thank you, senator hatch, for your work and all you have done to make america a better country and to make our tax system a better system for all the american people. i yield back. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. ms. cantwell: mr. president, i come to the floor to speak about this legislation and i want to, at the outset, thank my colleague from georgia and the senator from utah for their work on the affordable housing tax credit. i stand ready to work with him on affordable housing in the future and hopefully with the senator from georgia we can make progress with what is a crisis in america. i come to speak in opposition on the tax reconciliation bill. one of the requirements of the legislation that i most ardently oppose is the arctic wildlife
4:51 pm
refuge for oil and gas development. this bill pays for the tax cuts for corporations and middle class, by undermining health care an requiring drilling in our nation's most iconic national wildlife refuge. everyone should understand that the vote for this reconciliation bill is a vote to go to the howrt -- biological heart of the refuge and require drilling. i believe opening up the refuge to oil drilling is being done as a supposed revenue raiser to offset the soaring cost of this tax bill for corporations and the wealthy. but the process it went through is a sham. the congressional budget office estimates that drilling for oil in the arctic will raise less than $1 billion over ten years. this doesn't even meet the $1 billion reconciliation instruction and it certainly doesn't represent a serious
4:52 pm
offset to the huge deficits in the bill. to put that into perspective, less than 7/100 of 1% of the increase in the national debt will be from this policy in this legislation. so drilling in the arctic really has nothing to do with the serious budget policy. it has everything to do with evading regular order to pass something that could never, through the regular order of legislative process, pass. in addition to drilling in the arctic wildlife refuge, this bill would sell seven million barrels of oil from our nation's strategic petroleum reserve. a portion of that sale is simply to meet the reconciliation structure, that is to say, make
4:53 pm
this bill work. but the sale of oil from the petroleum reserve would produce $300 billion of windfall to texas, louisiana, mississippi, and alabama. so this bill is selling off oil in order -- in order to pay for oil drilling in the arctic wildlife refuge. i do not believe that makes sense. under this sham process, the bill will turn one of our nation's wildest and most pristine areas into an oil field. the arctic wildlife refuge is the largest refuge in our nation and one of the crown jewels for us in the united states for wildlife refuges. i believe it is a u.s.er isen getty -- serengetti. jane goodle all said, quote, around the globe so many
4:54 pm
indigenous people have been harmed in the name of progress. let us not add one more tragedy to that list. we have other sources of energy. end quote. i would like to enter in the record the entire letter. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. cantwell: the u.s. fish and wildlife refuge describes it as the only conservation system unit that protects in an undisturbed condition a complete speck truck of the arctic -- spectrum an arctic echosystem in america. it has 47 different species of mammals including polar bears, grizzly bears, and caribou. it has over 40 species of fish and 200 species of birds. why would we want to destroy
4:55 pm
this refuge? it was first established by the eisenhower administration and congress later protected this amazing arctic area and its echosystem to protect the wildlife and protect the habitat because of its incredible diversity. the arctic wildlife refuge is really known as the last great wilderness in our country, one of the great last wild places. but this legislation turns that on its head. it would make oil and gas development one of the statutory purposes of the wildlife refuge. and under this legislation, this refuge would become the only refuge where oil and gas development is required by law. it opens up an entire 1.5 million-acre coastal plain for gas and oil exploration, leasing 100,000 acres. it will lease the areas with the
4:56 pm
highest cost of oil and gas no matter the consequences for the environment. the bill requires that the arctic national wildlife be managed as a petroleum preserve. it is not consistent with the refuge management of wildlife. this bill includes no clear requirements to comply with environmental laws or to protect wildlife. it response -- its sponsors, however, are saying, they are not preempting environmental laws that, like the national environmental policy act, will fully apply. but this bill undercuts those assurances of compliance with environmental laws by adding oil development as the purpose -- as the purpose of the arctic wildlife refuge. adding oil development as a purpose is contrary to the purpose of a wildlife refuge. the purpose of a wildlife refuge is to protect wildlife and to
4:57 pm
make sure that managers of wildlife do so in a management fashion. at every other wildlife refuge in the country, development when the refuge is only permitted to the extent combatable with protecting wildlife. so this bill tries to waive one of the most important management -- that development must be compatible. they do this because they know that oil and gas development in the arctic wildlife refuge is not compatible. it is the opposite. it is important to know that this bill does not also provide any energy security. there's no prohibition in the bill against exporting oil in the wildlife refuge. in all likelihood much of the oil will be exported. in addition to opening up the arctic wildlife refuge, the bill includes seven billion barrels of oil from the strategic
4:58 pm
reserve to give to texas, louisiana, mississippi, and alabama. so, at the same time we're being told we must -- we must ruin a national wildlife refuge because we need the oil, we are selling oil out of the strategic petroleum reserve. it just does not make sense for america. it just doesn't add up. the impact of oil and gas exploration in the wildlife area and the danger to our wildlife cannot be overstated. the arctic wildlife refuge coastal plain and nearby waters are designated as critical habitats for polar bears which are listed under the protected species act, female polar bears, and the arctic wildlife refuge
4:59 pm
has a higher concentration of polar bear denning and habitat than any other area on the north slope. some are cabin grounds for the caribou herd and we have a treaty between canada and america to protect this herd. the almost 200,000 herd has an annual migration of hundreds of miles and sometimes thousands of miles wintering in the south of the refuge. now, i think this herd of caribou is so important because scientists say they have an entirely different migration pattern than other caribou in alaska. that they have been adept at dealing with the adaptation that comes along with climate change. why not, instead of ruining their habitat, study and
5:00 pm
understand that migration that has been studied since the 1950's. it has been part of our national investment in understanding wildlife. it's been supported by both democrat and republican administrations to understand the science and background of this caribou herd. and these caribou are important food sowrses for -- sources for many alaskan natives. wildlife biologists argue that the risks to the caribou herd and those who rely on them could be quite significant. so why are we doing this? why are we doing this? the last few years have been a difficult budget situation in alaska. relying on oil for 90% of the budget i agree is unsustainable. and every dollar the price of oil per barrel drops, the state budget, it drops by 30 million
5:01 pm
or close to one percentage point per dollar. the general revenue fund in alaska dropped over 80% in 2012, and that situation caused alaska's $4 billion deficit reduction last year so difficult choices had to be made about taxes, savings, spending, and what the state government should do. thankfully their economy hasn't collapsed, but in the last big oil-driven recession in the 1980's, alaska's banks failed and housing prices collapsed and 15% of the population left. why am i bringing this up? well, because the good news is in today's alaska economy, it's more diverse than it was 30 years ago. i know this because i talked to my colleagues and because we're interacting in a lot of ways in the pacific northwest. alaska is well known for its tourism, two million visitors to alaska spend $1,000 per person in the state supporting a $7
5:02 pm
billion outdoor industry. my colleagues here may not realize what my colleagues from alaska and washington know, and that is that the state of alaska and washington have a lot of independents. a recent study found 113,000 jobs in puget sound are tied to alaska's economy and this number has doubled in the last 30 years. so what are those jobs? a quarter of those are in the seafood industry, almost a thousand commercial fishermen that work in alaska fisheries are part of the trade between us. the alaska trade accounts for one in five containerized ships that travel through the port of seattle and port of tacoma. jobs are tied to transportation including passenger cruise ships that come flew puget sound -- through puget sound every year. that's one way of saying the washington and alaska economy are tied together. and as a hub for arctic commerce, i've worked with my
5:03 pm
colleague senator murkowski and senator sullivan on issues like a new coast guard arctic ice breakers that are so needed for the future. and i've supported more funding for demonstration of renewable energy and microgrids in an effort to help the local economy. i feel the same way about rural broadband across the nation, and we want to make sure that we're deploying and helping with everything we can to bring more economic activity to alaska. but i really question how opening the arctic wildlife refuge is a solution to that problem. even under c.b.o.'s aggressive view, if leasing occurs in the refuge, it will be many years before alaskans see any significant revenue. so my colleagues should be aware that doubling down on oil by sacrificing one of the great wildlife refuges won't help
5:04 pm
close alaska's budget deficit, and it won't help them diversify for the future. this arctic wildlife refuge is just too special. it's too important. it's one of the crown jewels of our national wildlife refuge system. we should be preserving it. we should not be destroying it. we should not be turning it into an oil field. i am reminded that many people over many decades have fought for this great area of our country, to maintain its environmental stewardship. starting with murray who went there and did great exploration that convinced many people here in this washington that it was something so special worth preserving. after decades of his scientific exploration of alaska, he testified in 1959 in support of
5:05 pm
creating the arctic wildlife refuge. he said, quote, we long for something more for something that has a mental and a spiritual impact on us, this idealism more than anything else will set us apart as a nation for striving for something worthwhile in the universe. end quote. so what is setting us apart today? some very short-term gains. in a hundred years when this economic tax bill will long be forgotten, the question will be whether something important in the universe still exists in the arctic wildlife area. we didn't create the arctic coastal plain, but i can tell you this.
5:06 pm
we cannot recreate it. what we're doing today is taking a step towards destroying it. i urge my colleagues to oppose this reconciliation bill. do not sacrifice the arctic wildlife refuge to oil development. don't take one of the great wild pristine places on this planet and turn it into an oil field. we can do better as a nation. i know we can do better as a region. and we can do better with a better arctic strategy for our nation's future. i thank the president and i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. mr. markey: mr. president, thank you. and i thank the great senator from washington state for her leadership on this incredibly important issue.
5:07 pm
if this tax bill weren't terrible enough, it goes after one of the most beautiful places on earth, the arctic national wildlife refuge. but drilling in the arctic national wildlife refuge is nothing more than a big oil polar payout. this isn't about drilling for oil. it's about drilling for votes. this isn't about crude oil. it's the crudest of politics. we now have 41 cosponsors of my legislation with senator bennet to permanently protect the arctic refuge by designating it as a wilderness. that is enough to sustain a filibuster and that is precisely why they are circumventing the normal legislative process by including it as a rider on a tax bill. in reality, drilling would turn
5:08 pm
this pristine wilderness into an industrialized wasteland. the coastal plain is the biological heart of the arctic refuge. and allowing oil and gas drilling would drive a stake right through the heart of it. we're currently sending nearly one million barrels of oil a day of american crude oil overseas, but republicans and the oil industry allies are saying that we need to allow drilling in the wildest place left in america so that we can export even more oil to china and other foreign nations. it's an abomination. it's a disgrace. drilling in a wilderness area? in order to send oil to china? it's a disgrace.
5:09 pm
and if the republicans persist in passing this monstrosity of a tax bill and pass this big oil polar payout, they're the ones who are going to be left out in the cold in 2018. if the republicans want to see what real wilderness looks like, they don't need to travel to the arctic refuge. the wilderness is about to come to them. they're about to be sent deep into the political wilderness if they pass this tax scam legislation. if the republicans are successful in ramming through the arctic drilling rider in the dead of night, we will never give up. we will keep fighting because the arctic refuge should forever be the home of caribou, not crude, bears, not barrels of oil. sand pipers, not pipelines. we will never stop fighting.
5:10 pm
they may win tonight in the dark of night, but this fight is not over. this is a crime against the environment, which is being committed here tonight. we do not have to sacrifice this wilderness. we are exporting oil out of our country,est porting it. -- country, exporting it. we don't have to go here. export more oil and that's where it's going? it's just wrong. and just remember that this is all a part of the so-called republican reconciliation process. and now that we have the final product, that process is being exposed as the giant con game that it truly is. the key phrase in reconciliation is con. it's a con job. the whole thing is nothing more than a masquerade, a trojan
5:11 pm
horse in order to get a tax break for the upper 1 percentile. it's a con job. the polling in our country says the american people are not buying it. they're seeing right through it, through all the political noise, all of the incredible distractions, all the red herrings. the american public knows that this is a tax break for the wealthiest people in our country and not for the middle concludes. republicans -- middle class. republicans are not even trying to hide what they're doing anymore. they're moving ahead with reckless speed to pass this disaster of a bill in the middle of the night so that is why we will all be back here in a few hours yet again voting in the dead of night on a 500-page bill that has no hearings, no amendments, no real debate because that's the only way you can get a tax break for the
5:12 pm
upper 1 percentile and the wealthiest corporations in the country while trying to market it as a tax break for the middle class, when they know it is not. they know it, by the way. they know what they are doing. it is the height of irony that we will be here tonight ramming through legislation before the senator-elect from the state of alabama can be seated. just eight years ago republicans called on democrats to step up and repeal the affordable care act until senator scott brown was sworn in. they said at the time stop progress. don't do anything. we need to wait for scott brown to show up. but then when doug jones gets elected, it's just put your foot to the accelerator, move as fast as you can, no hearings, no
5:13 pm
anything. and alabama will not be represented with their new senator out here. back then democrats actually listened to those calls and today our concerns are completely ignored by the republicans, all so they can continue playing their con game on the american people. and the american people are waking up to the fact that they have been sold a bill of goods. they are seeing that this plan is simply a trojan horse of giveaways to the wealthy, the corporations, and republican political donors. what are some of those giveaways? well, front and center is the massive cut in tax rates for mega corporations. we know this won't create jobs or trickle down to their employees because we've tried it before. in 2004 we gave a massive tax holiday for huge corporations on the money that they held overseas. but the 15 companies that
5:14 pm
benefited the most from those giveaways cut more than 20,000 jobs and decreased their research spending. mark twain says history doesn't repeat itself but it does tend to rhyme and this bill rhymes with that 2004 bill. the tax cut in this bill is even more egregious. corporate tax cuts floated c.e.o.'s and shared stockholders and those stockholders aren't all american taxpayers. foreigners hold 35% of u.s. corporate stock, foreigners. that means that the republican tax is a giveaway of $48 billion to foreigners in 2019 alone. so think about this. the republicans can find $48 billion to give away to foreign shareholders, but in the same bill raise taxes on millions of middle-class families. by 2027, this bill will raise
5:15 pm
taxes on over 53% of american households. and at the same time, a full 83% of the tax cuts will flow to the top 1% of americans. so the more the american people see what is in this bill, the more they realize that they will have to foot the bill, the american people are saying no way. new polls today show that over half of the american public opposes this bill. two-thirds of the people recognize that the bill will benefit the wealthy over the middle class, and according to the polls, the only thing more unpopular than this tax plan is president trump himself. but the republicans will push ahead anyways since this is all part of the bigger con game. because when these tax giveaways
5:16 pm
pass, the deficit will explode by over $2 trillion. and republicans aren't even waiting for those deficits to become reality before using them as an excuse to move to the next days of -- phase of the con gam. they are already using future deficits to justify a brutal, vicious cut to programs for the poorest, for the sickest, for the neediest people in our country. earlier this month, speaker ryan said, quote, we're going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit. we know exactly what republicans mean when they talk about entitlement reform. they mean taking a machete to the programs that working and middle-class families in america rely upon.
5:17 pm
republicans want nothing more than an excuse to slash medicare and make it harder for grandma to buy her medicine. the ability to gut medicaid, because in their opinion, health care is only a right for the wealthy. to empower their historical emnity toward social security so they can steal benefits from every american who has paid into that system. they are doing this because the modern republican party has a sacred obligation to their donors, to the koch brothers, to the massive corporations that help fund their campaigns. they promised them tax breaks, and it will be average working families who will end up footing the bill. when the bill becomes due, the mearp will not forget who sent
5:18 pm
it to them. mr. president, here we are at the end of the year. we have truly important issues to address. we need to fund health care for nine million children and show that community health centers can keep the lights on, secure the dreams of 800,000 young dreamers and combat the crisis that american communities face from opioids and natural disasters. but sadly, we are doing none of those things. instead, we are looting america's middle class to give away massive amounts of money to the rich, which will then create deficits, which will then have them going after medicare, medicaid, and social security. grandma and grandpa who built this country. that's always been their plan. they have an ancient animosity toward all of these programs, and now they believe that they can leave them as debt-soaked relics of what they are today by creating this huge debt in this tax bill and then turning on the
5:19 pm
very programs for the very people who made this country who we are today. mr. president, i urge a no vote on this bill. it will go down in history as one of the worst single pieces of legislation ever to be considered by the united states senate. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. thune: mr. president, relief for americans is on the way. this evening, we'll vote on the first comprehensive overhaul of
5:20 pm
our tax code since 1986. mr. president, in 1986, i was a young senate staffer. i watched as that tax bill passed on the floor of the united states senate. i was a 25-year-old staffer back then. in a couple of weeks, my wife and i will welcome our third grandchild into the world. so it seems only fitting that after about 30 years, that we go about the business of reforming the tax code, because a lot has changed in this country. a lot has changed in this country in the past 30 years. the one thing that hasn't changed is the tax code. our tax code needs to be updated and modernized to reflect the times in which we live. since president reagan signed the last overhaul into law, our tax code has ballooned into an unwieldy, complex maze that costs american taxpayers an incredible amount of time and money and acts as a drag on economic growth and job
5:21 pm
creation. and, mr. president, i will say that when i got here, got elected to the senate, i came here like most of us do because we want to do big things. we want to do consequential things. we want to do things that will impact the american people in a beneficial and a positive way. that's certainly the case with tax reform. and i saw to get -- sought to get on the senate finance committee for that reason. the senate finance committee has jurisdiction over tax and trade and health care and issues that really impact and affect the american people's everyday lives. and so in 2011, i had the good fortune of getting on the committee. ever since that time, mr. president, we have been working aggressively, planning for this very day. the suggestion by our colleagues on the other side that somehow this cropped up all of a sudden overnight is just absolutely inconsistent with the facts. since i got on the finance committee in 2011, we have had no fewer than 70 hearings, 70
5:22 pm
hearings on tax reform and tax-related issues. in 2015, the chairman of the committee, senator hatch, created one of the working groups. i was fortunate enough to chair one of the working groups. they were bipartisan. they were tasked with looking at all aspects of the tax code. broke it down into five sections, and make recommendations for tax reform. we went about that in a very diligent way. we spent weeks and months developing those ideas, reported those recommendations to the full committee, and those recommendations today serve, mr. president, as the foundation for the legislation that we are considering. and that was a bipartisan process. the democrats participated in that. a lot of the suggestions are bipartisan ideas. the foundation for this legislation, frankly, in many respects, mr. president, originated with those working groups that were worked upon by both republicans and democrats. so we stand here today with a piece of legislation that has a lot of bipartisan substance in it even though the democrats have refused to participate in
5:23 pm
the process. but we started out with two major goals in tax reform. world cup was to put more money in the pockets of hardworking americans and to create a tax code that would foster economic growth and make american companies competitive again in the global marketplace. those are the two goals, mr. president. the bill before us today, the tax cuts and jobs act, succeeds on both fronts. the bill provides immediate, direct relief for hardworking americans starting next month. it lowers tax rates for americans in every income bracket. it nearly doubles the standard deduction, simplifying the code and meaning that fewer people will have to itemize. across the country, it varies state by state, but there are less than a third of the people on average who itemize across the country today. well, this will lessen that number even further. there will be fewer than 10% of the people in this country who will have to itemize because of the doubling or near doubling of the standard deduction. the doubling of the child tax
5:24 pm
credit and significantly increases the refundable portion of the credit will provide important additional help for low-income families, and it maintains the earned income tax credit. all this means, mr. president, that american families are going to see a significant drop in their tax bills for next year. and just as a case in point, a family in this country, a family of four with a combined annual income of $73,000 per year will see a tax cut of over $2,000. that represents a 58% reduction over what they are paying today under current law. if you are a single parent with one child, an income of $41,000, you are going to see a $1,300 reduction in your taxes, which represents a 73% reduction over what you are paying today under current law. so the idea as has been advanced
5:25 pm
by the other side, mr. president, somehow middle-class taxpayers don't benefit from this, is just absolutely false. it is inaccurate, because these are objective facts, a doubling of the standard deduction, a doubling of the child tax credit, a doubling of rates means that people in all income groups are going to see significant tax relief. and just to put a fine point on that, this is based on the latest analysis by the joint committee on taxation. they assess and look at how these proposals will translate in terms of income groups and who gets impacted by that. i want to point out that if you look at income by level here, different groups and their incomes, as you can see, every income group receives a significant tax cut. and, in fact, lower income americans receive the largest tax cuts, and that again,
5:26 pm
according, mr. president, to the joint committee on taxation. the point that was made earlier by my colleague from the other side was that somehow, you know, that this was going to be a huge tax shift in terms of who is going to pay taxes after all this is said and done. well, if you look at the tax burden -- and by that, i mean who pays taxes in this country. the share of taxes currently borne by each different income category. as you can see from this chart -- and this is broken down, this is about by quadrant. 25% of the filers are in this category, 25% in this category, 25% in the $50,000 to $100,000 in income, and the final 25%, the final quadrant is those making $100,000 and above. well, if you look at those in the lower income categories, and this according to the joint committee on taxation, their share of the tax burden relative to what it is today is actually the same or lower.
5:27 pm
so those lower income categories, those making $20,000 to $50,000 a year, and that represents about 25% of filers today paid 4.3% of total taxes in this country. after implementation of the bill, they will pay 4.1% of total taxes in this country. their overall tax burden will have decreased after passage of this legislation. you take the next category, the $50,000 to $100,000, and they pay today under current law 16.9% of the total tax burden in this country. after this legislation has passed, they will be paying 16.9% of the total tax burden in this country. so what about those making $100,000 a year and more, which represents about 25% of all filers? well, mr. president, according to the joint committee on taxation on which these distribution tables are based, those in that income category who are paying today 78.7% of all the taxes in this country after this has passed will pay
5:28 pm
79.1%. so their overall tax burden actually goes up after this legislation is passed and enacted into law. now, interestingly enough, mr. president, this is the most recent analysis by the joint committee on taxation. this is the distribution table that they just put out. the category that has the biggest increase in terms of overall tax burden is those making a million dollars a year and more. today they pay 19.3% of all the tax burden, all the tax liability in this country. after this is all said and done, they will pay 19.8%. so their taxes, those a million and more, are going up under this legislation. so this idea -- you know, they keep saying it on the other side, but just because they keep saying it, mr. president, doesn't make it true. the facts tell a completely different story. these are the facts. and again, i come back to the point i made earlier, and that
5:29 pm
is let's put it into language that people in this country understand. when they go do their taxes, they are going to see a doubling of the standard deduction. they are going to see a doubling of the child tax credit. if you're a family with kids in this country, that means for every child that you have, instead of getting a $1,000 child tax credit, you will get a $2,000 child tax credit. couple that with the lower rates and the rates are going to be, the marginal rates with the 10% rate, a 12% rate and where those kick in at different brackets, you're going to see significant reduction in your taxes across all income groups. that's just the reality. and so i think it's important, mr. president, that we at least as we're talking about this subject talk about it in terms of the facts. now, the tax cuts and jobs act also preserves elements of the current tax code that have been working for americans. under this bill, homeowners and those aspiring to own a home will still be able to deduct their mortgage interest if they itemize on their taxes. individuals who donate to
5:30 pm
charities, to churches, and educational institutions will still be able to claim those contributions as an itemized deduction. and working americans will retain all the current options for saving for retirement, from individual retirement accounts to the various types of employer-provided retirement plans like 401(k)'s. this bill also provides families with permanent relief from the burdensome individual mandate which is a tax on lower income americans. under the tax cuts and jobs act, americans will no longer be required to buy health insurance that they don't want and can't afford or face significant financial penalties which today disproportionately fall on those who make less than $50,000 a year. mr. president, this bill also restores the deduction for major medical expenses to where it was before obamacare. for this year and next, americans facing the burden of significant medical expenses will once again be able to deduct any expenses that exceed
5:31 pm
7.5% of their adjusted gross income. i hope that, mr. president, eventually we'll able to make that change permanent. but that's not all this is going to do. it's not just going to help americans now. it's going to help them for the long term. it's going to give them access to the kinds of jobs and wages and opportunities that will set them up for a secure future. how does it go about doing that? well, it rebuilds our broken tax code into a modern tax system designed for a 21st century economy. in order for individual americans to thrive, american businesses need to thrive. thriving businesses expand. they hire new workers. they can afford to offer those workers higher wages, but our current tax code has not been helping businesses thrive. on the contrary, mr. president. it's been strangling businesses large and small with high tax rates and provisions that discourage growth and drive those good-paying jobs overseas.
5:32 pm
plus, our outdated tax structure has left american businesses at a competitive disadvantage in the global economy. well, this legislation changes all that. this bill lowers tax rates across the board for small and medium size businesses, farms and ranches. it provides a 20% deduction on pass-through income reducing the top effective tax rate on this income to no more than 29.6%. it permits businesses with gross receipts of up to $25 million to use the cash method of accounting and to expense their inventory costs. it allows businesses to expense new investments and machinery, equipment, and building improvements. and it expands the amount of start-up and organizational expenses that new businesses can write off upfront freeing up cash flow to get the business up and running. mr. president, accelerating businesses' ability to recover the money that they invested if things like property, equipment, and inventory will encourage new business growth and help existing businesses, including
5:33 pm
farms and ranches, expand their operations, create new jobs, and grow the economy. the bill also helps family-owned business, farms and ranches by providing substantial relief from the death tax. now, i would have preferred to eliminate what i think is a confiscatory tax once and for all. but in this legislation, we double the current exemption to over a million dollars and by doing that, this bill will take a vast majority of family-owned businesses, farms and ranches out of the taxes' crosshairs. too many of these businesses have wasted tens of thousands of dollars a year on costly estate planning simply to avoid the death tax and to preserve that family business for another generation. that's money that these individuals would rather be investing in their businesses and their workers. mr. president, this legislation allows these businesses to save critical capital for their businesses instead of forcing them to spend it to pocket themselves from the heavy hand of government. in addition to improving the playing field for small businesses, the tax cuts and
5:34 pm
jobs act will boost our economy by lowering the tax rate for larger businesses. right now america's global businesses pay the highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized world. by reducing the corporate tax rate to 21%, this bill will allow american businesses to compete and win in the global economy. and just as importantly, this bill brings the u.s. international tax system into the 21st century by replacing our outdated, worldwide tax system with a territorial tax system so that american businesses are not operating at a disadvantage next to their foreign competitors. we haven't talked a lot about this, but one of the most important reforms, mr. president, in this bill or the changes that we make to the international tax system. this bill also eliminates the incentives in our tax code that encourages businesses to shift jobs, profits and manufacturing plants overseas. mr. president, this bill makes it easier for american
5:35 pm
businesses to bring home foreign earners to invest in growing jobs and paychecks in our local communities here in america. lowering the corporate tax rate and transitioning to a territorial tax system will boost wages, job, and opportunities for american workers employed by our nation's global economies and also increase wages, jobs, and opportunities for workers at the countless small and medium size businesses throughout our country that make up the supply chain for america's global companies. mr. president, that's a resounding win for american workers and businesses and for our economy overall. this bill is the product, as i said earlier, of literally years of work by members of both parties. i'm excited to be here. as we get an opportunity to take this bill across the finish line later today. mr. president, i yield the
5:36 pm
floor. mr. daines: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. daines: mr. president, the tax cuts and jobs act will keep over $700 million per year in montanans' pockets. now, that's not a number that i calculated. that came right from the montana department of revenue. and that is just for the individuals in montana. $700 million is going to be moved from washington, d.c. back to the people of montana. and i can tell you something. hardworking montanans could use a pay raise. in fact in montana, we have some of the lowest per capita wainls in the nation -- wages in the nation. now, contrast that with what's going on in washington, d.c. in fact, if you google wealthiest counties in the u.s.a. , i challenge you to do that. take your smartphone, google wealthiest counties in the u.s.a. .
5:37 pm
look at what you'll find. the top three wealthiest counties in america are suburbs of washington, d.c. in fact, six out of ten of those counties are suburbs, counties adjacent to washington, d.c. montanans don't need to send an additional $700 million of their money back to washington, d.c. in fact, according to the montana department of revenue, nearly 99% of montanans will see a tax cut under the tax cuts and jobs act. on average montanans will keep approximately $1,600 of their hard earned money each year. more qoafer the tax cut -- moreover the tax cuts and jobs act repeals once and for all obama's poverty tax, the so-called individual mandate. this tax has systematically
5:38 pm
penalized the low income for not being able to afford health insurance. frankly, repealing this tax is one of the most compassionate things that we could do as part of this legislation. now, adding insult to injury, when you peel back what's going on with this poverty tax. 42% of those paying that poverty tax, that obamacare mandate tax, make less than $25,000 a year. in fact, 82% of the penalty payers paying this tax make less than $50,000 a year. repealing this tax is the right thing to do. and at the end of the day the question here is pretty simple. who deserves more money, who deserves more control? is it right here in washington, d.c. or is it the american people? is it the people of montana? i think the answer to that question is pretty easy.
5:39 pm
i believe montanans do. so i will be voting for hardworking montana families so they can keep more of their own money. as we debate what we should do with the cash here in washington, d.c., whose money is it anyway? it came from the people of this country. it came from the people of montana. i'll be voting for montana main street businesses, for the hardworking middle class in montana so we can grow wages, some of the lowest in the nation, and grow jobs. i'll be voting to return some of montanans' hard earned money back to the people that sent us here in the first place. mr. president, i yield back my time. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, my friend from south dakota a few moments ago was speaking about the bill. and he made one statement that i do agree with. and that is, just because you
5:40 pm
say something over and over again does not make it true. and unfortunately, much of what he said is just not accurate. the truth is that what we are seeing today in an unprecedented way is the looting, the looting of the federal treasury. today marks a great victory for the very wealthy campaign contributors who are con-- who have contributed hundreds of millions of dollars over the years to the republican party because these billionaires will see a huge tax break for themselves at the same time as the deficit of this country is driven up by about $1.5 trillion. today is also a victory for the largest, the most profitable
5:41 pm
corporations in america, companies like apple, microsoft, pfizer and general electric who despite record breaking profits will now see hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks. mr. president, at the time of massive income and wealth and inequality where the people on top are becoming wealthier while the middle class shrinks and 40 million live in poverty, this legislation according to the nonpartisan tax policy center will provide 83% of the benefits to the top 1% while increasing taxes on 92 million middle-class households by the end of the decade. let me repeat that. by the end of the decade, this legislation will provide 83% of
5:42 pm
the benefits to the top 1% and incredibly 60% of the benefits to the top one-tenth of 1% while at the end of the decade 92 million middle-class households will be paying more in taxes. does anybody really believe that when we have such a massive gap in income in wealth inequality that we should be giving 60% of the tax breaks in this bill to the top one-tenth of 1%. it says a lot about the priorities of the republican party when the tax breaks for corporations in this bill are permanent while the tax breaks for working families expire at the end of eight years.
5:43 pm
they expire at the end of eight years. furthermore, i hope that every american is listening to what speaker of the house paul ryan is saying and other republicans when they talk about how they are going to offset the $1.5 trillion in deficits they just created by giving massive tax breaks to the wealthy and large corporations. what ryan is saying and many other republicans are saying is they're going to come back and offset that $1.5 trillion in deficits by cutting social security, medicare, and medica medicaid. and if i am wrong on that assertion, i would hope that some of my republican colleagues would come down to the floor and say that i am wrong, but i do not suspect that that will be the case. mr. president, during his
5:44 pm
campaign for the white house, donald trump said over and over again to the american people, quote after quote, day after day he would not cut social security, medicare, and medica medicaid. well, i say to the president for once in your life keep the promises that you made and tell the republican leadership now that you will veto any legislation that cuts social security, medicare, or medicaid. i suspect we will not be seeing a tweet from the president on that issue. mr. president, having passed -- or we're moving toward passing this very, very unfair piece of legislation, the republican leadership which controls the house and the senate will move
5:45 pm
soon to shut down the congress and head home for a holiday break. after massive tax breaks for the rich and large corporations, they believe their work is done and they're ready to head home. well, i respectfully disagree. maybe, just maybe before congress adjourns for the holidays we should start paying attention to the needs of the working families of this country, to the middle class of this country, and not just the billionaire class. mr. president, we need to address the crisis that faces some 8 u.n.,000 -- 800,000 young people who are currently in the daca program. without the legal protections afforded by the daca program,
5:46 pm
these young people today are living in constant fear and anxiety that they may lose their legal status and in fact be deported from the only country they have ever known. imagine somebody who he is 20r 25 years of age, virtually lived in the united states his or her entire life. has gone to school here, has a job, now is in college, now is in the military, and because of trump's disastrous attack on daca -- repealing daca, 800,000 young people are worried about whether or not they are going to be able to stay in this country. now, mr. president, the american people are very clear about how
5:47 pm
they feel about this issue. there was just a poll that appeared, i believe today, a qiew -- a qunipiac poll. what comes closest to your view of undocumented immigrants who were brought to the united states as children? should they be allowed to stay in the united states and eventually apply for u.s. citizenship or allow to remain in the united states and not apply for u.s. citizenship or not stay in the united states? here is the answer. 77% of the american people -- 77% -- say that these young people should be allowed to stay in the united states and move toward citizenship, 7% say they
5:48 pm
should stay in the united states but not gain citizenship, 12% say they should be forced to leave the united states. republicans, by overwhelming numbers, say that these young people, these dreamers who have spent their entire lives in this country who know no other country should allowed to stay in america and apply for citizenship. 91% of democrats say that. 81% of independents say that. mr. president, as we speak, young people are losing their legal status. we have got to act on that and act on that now before we adjourn for the holidays. put yourself in the place of some 20, 25-year-old person living in extraordinary anxiety. we have got to act now to
5:49 pm
address those concerns. we have got to do what the american people want us to do. as i think most people know, the koch brothers are the major funders of the republican party. they probably put billions of dollars over the years, even charles koch -- even charles koch acknowledges that the right thing to do is to provide legal status for the dreamers. let me quote from a recent op-ed in "the washington post" by charles koch and tim cook, the head of apple. the united states is at its best -- this is a quote. the united states is at its best when all people are free to pursue their dreams. our country has enjoyed unparalleled success by welcoming people from around the world who seek to make better life for themselves and their families no matter what their backgrounds. it is our differences that help
5:50 pm
us to learn from each other, to challenge our old ways of thinking, and to discover innovative solutions that benefit us all. to advance their prosperity and build an even stronger future, each successive generation, including our own, must show the courage to embrace diversity and do what is right. we know how difficult it can be to get things in washington and we know people of good faith disagree on aspects of immigration policy. if there were ever an occasion to come together to help people improve their lives, this is it, by acting now to ensure that dreamers can realize their potential by continuing to contribute to the economy, congress can reaffirm this essential american idea. this is from charles koch. he funds the republican party. you might want to listen to him as well. mr. president, but it's not just the need to address the crisis
5:51 pm
facing our dreamers. as you know community health centers, providing health insurance health care for 27 million people have not been reauthorized or refunded. we have to address that issue and we have to address it now. nine million children are in the children's health insurance program, and while we're busy giving tax breaks to billionaires, we have not had time to reauthorize a health insurance program for the children of this country. we should be ashamed of ourselves. we got disaster relief out there while folks go home in congress and celebrate for the holidays and we light up our homes. in puerto rico and the virgin islands they can't light up their homes because many of them still don't have electricity as a result of the repeat disasters that they have experienced. we need to do disaster relief. we need to do it now for the
5:52 pm
people of puerto rico, for the people of the virgin islands, for the people of texas, for the people of florida. mr. president, 1.5 million american workers are about to lose the pensions they were promised and those pensions, after a lifetime of work, will be reduced by 60% if we don't address the multiemployer pension plan crisis. we have to do that. mr. president, we have over 40 million people in this country who are dealing with student debt, leave college deeply in debt. many of their financial situations are in despair because of the outrageus level of student loans. we have to address that. we have an opioid epidemic that is killing people from coast to coast. we have to start investing in treatment and prevention.
5:53 pm
we have 30,000 vacancies in the v.a. today our job is to make sure that every veteran in this country gets the quality health care he or she needs. they don't get it with 30,000 veterans. we have to invest in the v.a. 10,000 people on disability died last year while waiting for the social security administration to act on their applications -- 10,000 people died last year because the social security administration is greatly understaffed. massive cuts to the social security administration, the elderly and disabled in this country are entitled to have prompt process when they apply for a benefit. they are not getting that. they have to pay attention to that and on and on it goes. bottom line, mr. president, is
5:54 pm
the united states senate should be doing more than providing 83% of the benefits in a tax bill to the top 1%. we cannot go home unless we address the very serious crises facing the working families and the middle class of this country. and with that, mr. president, i would yield to my colleague from oregon. mr. wyden: thank you very much, senator sanders. and i want to pick up for a mement on your eloquent points and -- for a moment on your eloquent points and pose a question to you about what we will be doing here in a few minutes. senator sanders, you have eloquently spoken to the needs of the american people, our veterans, the dreamers, the disasters. it is a bipartisan effort, to
5:55 pm
fix a broken system. you mentioned children's health insurance. this bill borrows $1.5 trillion, that's going to end up borrowing a lot of it from foreign interest. $1.5 trillion would fund the children's health insurance program for 915 years. so what the senator from vermont is doing is saying, look at all the constructive areas where you can really meet the needs of the people, instead we're working on a tax bill that's going to betray the middle class, that's going to betray the middle class, and in my view, as the distinguished senator from vermont and i discussed, i think this bill -- this tax bill -- is a textbook case of writing legislation in an undemocratic way, in a secret way, provisions
5:56 pm
airdropped for lobbies into this legislation in the middle of the night. you and i were part of a so-called conference committee last week where we didn't even have the relevant bill in front of us. we were asking questions about bills that didn't really exist. mr. sanders: if i could ask my colleague from oregon a simple question. you're the ranking member of the finance committee. this is a bill that deals with trillions of dollars and impacts our entire economy and impacts every person in america. would you mind telling the american people just how many hearings there were to hear from economists, the business community and senior advocates. how many hearings were there to discuss this long and complicated bill? mr. wyden: there was not one single hearing to discuss the specifics of the legislation before us today -- the
5:57 pm
legislation before us today involves $10 trillion worth of changes in tax policy, and our colleagues on the other side trumpets this idea that there were 70 hearings. i think what they were talking about is that over the years people would talk about this idea or that. mr. sanders: talk about tax relief in general? wide wye correct. but -- mr. wyden: but there was not one specific hearing with respect to the specifics of the bill. i would like to turn to this work that my colleague has played such an important role on and i'm happy to have partnered with him, and that's the consequence of all of this reckless haste and secretive process. in my view it is legislative malpractice, what you and i have been working on, and we have a
5:58 pm
bill that is full of mistakes that will have unintended consequences, opening many loopholes for the crafty accountants and lawyers. now, you and i have been working to tried to we rch d -- weed out of this legislation what is called the byrd rule, which in english means you can't stuff provisions into a bill that don't really deal with tax and spending. now, by my count, you and i have already pushed out more than 20 byrd rule violations that have been corrected. before i ask my question, i want to give people a little bit of the idea of the work you and i have been doing over the last few days. late friday night we were able to remove a particularly
5:59 pm
offensive provision that would have turned some churches in america into partisan political organizations. specifically there was an effort here to overturn what's called the johnson amendment, name after lyndon johnson, that barred churches from endorsing partisan political activity and political candidates. and the way that the bill was written and why you and i sought to get it struck and were successful, it would have turned churches and sham charities into political machines where they could be conduits for billions and billions of dollars in dark money. mr. sanders: let me translate that into english. in other words, as i understand what you are saying, billionaire campaign contributors could legally put money into churches
6:00 pm
and will then do the political work they otherwise would have been doing. mr. wyden: absolutely. and, in effect, what we would have -- and i think we need to tell america about this because we won this round and you and i will be back at the fight with our colleagues again -- this would have been citizens united 2-point0. this would have been to have unaccountable dark money, billions of dollars poured into elections through churches and sham charities and turning to the question now of this evening, it looks to me like we now found several others byrd rule violations that would seem to me to be further -- a further indication of rash and reckless legislating that does not serve the american people well. so i would wrap-up by asking my colleague from vermont -- and i
6:01 pm
want to tell him it's been a pleasure to work in partnership with him on this. aren't these byrd rule violations that we've been going after, that you're going to discuss again tonight -- ar -- aren't these just a textbook case of what happens when you legislate with reckless haste? mr. sanders: absolutely. it's not only that mistakes are made. it's that when you don't open the doors to the american people , to economists, to mayors, to governors, to business people, to leaders of the labor movement to see what do you want to see impacts reform? when you don't do that and when you conduct your business behind closed doors, not only do you end up with legislation that represents the needs of the billionaire class, but you also make a number of mistakes, and in that regard, i would tell my friend that this afternoon, the
6:02 pm
senate parliamentarian advised that certain provisions of the republican tax legislation violate the byrd rule, including a provision allowing for the use of 529 savings accounts for home-schooling expenses, the short tie over tax cuts and jobs act, and part of the criteria used to determine whether the endowments of private universities are subject to the legislation's new excise tax. these provisions may be struck from the conference report absent 60 votes. and with that, mr. president, i raise the following points of order against the pending conference report. that subsection 11, 000-a violates section 313-b-1-a of the congressional budget act of 1974. that subparagraph b of section
6:03 pm
110,032, starting on page 75, line 17, and all through page 76, line 9, violates section 313-b-1-d of the congressional budget act of 1974, and that the phrase, quote, tuition paying, end quote, as it appears on page 309, line 12, and page 309, lines 14-15, violates section 313-b-1-d of the congressional budget act of 1974. the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. enzi: mr. president, pursuant to section 904 of the congressional budget act of 1974 and the waiver provisions of applicable budget resolutions, i move to waive all applicable sections of that act and applicable budget resolutions for the purposes of the conference report to accompany h.r. 1, and i ask for the yeas
6:04 pm
and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the yeas and nays are ordered. the waiver is debatable for one hour. equally divided. who yields time? if no one yields time, the time will be equally divided. the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: mr. president, i was proud to be a conferee for h.r. 1, the tax cut and jobs act. i'm pleased to join many of my colleagues in strong support for
6:05 pm
the conference report for it. i think, really, the title, the title says it all. this bill will deliver tax cuts and new jobs for hardworking americans. i think it will be good for our economy. it will be good for jobs and for growth and good for families and our businesses. as a starting point, we have tax reform, a huge and a complicated undertaking that really happens once in a generation around here. it's been 31 years since we have successfully reformed the tax code. i think we would all say that's long overdue, but this bill reduces taxes in every income bracket, letting americans keep more of their money. it doubles the standard deduction to put even more money back in the pockets of hardworking americans. it doubles the child tax credit, which is so important, making more of it refundable to help parents and our families. it helps our small businesses.
6:06 pm
in the state of alaska, about 99.6% of the businesses in alaska are small businesses, and it allows owners, too, to do even more by being able to deduct 20% of their business income from their taxes. it also cuts our corporate rate, currently one of the highest in the world. we all recognize that this is a move that is long overdue and one that will make us more competitive, help bring jobs back to this country and invest investments in america. i support tax reform, and i am also very proud to be the lead author of the second title, the energy title in this bill, which i believe contains the single most important step that we can take to strengthen our long-term energy security and create new wealth, creating new wealth
6:07 pm
rather than moving things around. this has been a long fight for us, mr. president. it's been a fight that's been going on for about 38 years, give or take. it's been a multigenerational fight for some of us. but what we are doing is authorizing a program for responsible energy development in alaska's nonwilderness 102 area. this is an area that congress specifically set aside for its evaluation, for its potential for oil and gas. mr. president, i have put a lot of charts about alaska up, but here is alaska laid over the united states of america, just to kind of put in context what we are talking about here with the 102 area. the area of anwr itself is -- is an area about
6:08 pm
19.5 million acres. it's the combined size of massachusetts, rhode island, vermont, and new hampshire. in this area here, in this portion of the state of alaska. contained within anwr is additional wilderness acreage. about seven million acres of wilderness contained in -- in the anwr area. but i also want to remind colleagues. they are saying we need to keep -- keep this area, this 102 area in a wilderness status. let me tell you, mr. president. the 102 was never in wilderness, is not in wilderness, and that's not what we're talking about here. we have 48 wilderness areas in the state of alaska with a total of about 56.6 million acres of designated wilderness in the state, but the 102 is not
6:09 pm
wilderness. this is what we are talking about opening up for oil and gas exploration. this is an area, this small area up here contains an estimated 10.4 billion barrels of oil. we know that we can produce it safely. we know that we're going to need this oil in the years ahead. now, some of my colleagues have suggested that somehow or other, we don't need any more oil, that we're exporting oil now. well, the reality is that world oil demand is rising. it's not falling. we need to bring more supply online, and we need to open up our most prospective areas. so again, when you have a small area that has enormous potential, why, why would we continue to deny that opportunity? the international jirg agency
6:10 pm
believes -- and they stated this this year -- global oil supply could struggle to keep pace with demand after 2020, risking a sharp increase in prices unless new projects are approved soon. so to suggest that somehow just because we're exporting oil we no longer need to produce it just doesn't make sense. exports are making our markets more efficient, but they don't mean they are suddenly more energy independent or permanently energy secure. so making sure that we are doing more where we have high prospects makes sense. our energy title also includes a bipartisan proposal from senators cassidy, strange, and king that will increase revenue sharing for the gulf coast priorities like coastal restoration and hurricane protection. overall, the bill, our title, is projected to raise nearly $1.1 billion over the next ten years, and once production begins up in the 102 area, we
6:11 pm
will likely raise tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars for the federal treasury. and again, mr. president, this is new wealth and new prosperity at a time when our nation needs both. but it's not -- it's not the only benefits that this energy title will bring. we're also talking about jobs, creating jobs, thousands of jobs in alaska and around the country, jobs that pay high wages, put food on the table, put the kids through college. we are in a tough place right now in alaska. we have got the highest unemployment in the country. and i appreciated the fact that my colleague from washington talked about jobs. and, in fact, noted that in the ties that bind the state of alaska and the state of washington, that we do have a lot when it comes to sharing of jobs. and i will remind, remind my
6:12 pm
colleagues that when it comes to jobs, it's an estimated 12,000 puget sound jobs and $780 million in labor earnings that are connected with refining alaska oil. so our jobs, our resource benefit not just us in alaska, but those around the country as well. what we're able to do by accessing this 102 area also will help us keep energy affordable, effectively providing families and businesses with an energy tax cut. that, too, is important in context with this tax bill. we also protect national security by reducing foreign oil dependence, especially, especially in west coast states. ironically, california and washington state, as they see less oil coming from alaska as
6:13 pm
our through-put is declining, what is happening is they, in order to keep their refineries going and their jobs continuing, they are having to import oil. where is california getting more of their oil from? from the middle east. tell me how that makes any sense. so, mr. president, i -- i appreciate that colleagues come to the floor with a passion about our state, but, but know that as alaskans and as an alaskan that was author of this title, none of what we are doing in this effort to open the 102 area will come at the expense of our environment for the local people, some of the local people who will be here in washington to watch the vote today. hearing the voices of those who live there, there is a town, there is a village, there are people, there is a school, there is an airport in the 1002 area.
6:14 pm
a town, residents, community. this is not an area that is untouched, but it is an area that we care about. we care about the people. we care about the land, and we care about the wildlife. but we know how to produce energy while protecting our environment. we have been doing it for decades, and we will continue to do it going into the future. and thanks to new technologies, the footprint of our development up north is smaller than ever before. the amount of land that development pads occupy now on our north slope is now 80% smaller than in the 1970's when we first began operation in prudhoe bay. 80% smaller. at the same time, the sub surface reach from those smaller pads is going to be more than
6:15 pm
4,000% larger than where we were in the 1970's. more than 4,000%. what we are doing, what we are able to do is to be able to access more resources underground directionally in an area, 125 square miles. what the technology allows us to do is almost too hard for people to believe, and so they continue the same tired rhetoric that we have heard for years. but our fact is, is we need less land to produce more energy than ever before. we're going to take care of our land. we're going to take care of the people who live on our north slope. we're going to take care of the environment. and we will protect the wildlife on the coastal plain. the central arctic herd caribou increased sevenfold in the years since we have been producing in prudhoe bay. that's the alaskan way.
6:16 pm
that's what we do up there. and that's why we have written our language to be fully protective. and that's why we do not waive any environmental review process or consultation requirements with alaska natives in any way. in fact, mr. president, the only thing that we limit here in this bill, all we do is we limit surface development. so in this area in the 1002, in this 1.5 million acres, this provision, this title 2 says 2,000 acres, 2,000 surface acres will be open. one ten thousandths of all of anwr, that is all we are seeking to do. and we will do it with a care and a concern for the environment. mr. president, i have listened to colleagues say that we are destroying the refuge, that we will turn this into an industrial waste land. i am offended.
6:17 pm
i am horrified. and it is wrong. it is wrong for those from the outside looking in who have taken a nice trip into an area and said this must be protected. your jobs don't matter. that resource that we rely on for jobs in my state, that doesn't matter. we'll get it from somewhere else. well, where are you going to get it from? why not work with people who are going to care for the land, care for the people, care for the wildlife? do it with a level of commitment to a resource and to a cause that is strong and sound. and so, mr. president, for those who come in and say they know best, they know best, and their idea is just lock it up, that's not right. that's not right. and for 40 years alaskans have stood up and they said that's
6:18 pm
not right. and we will continue in our effort to demonstrate to the rest of the country and the rest of the world how we are able to operate, how we are able to be responsible stewards of the environment, to be able to produce jobs, to help alaskan people, to help the country, to help our allies. this is what we're asking for, mr. president. so mr. president, as i close my comments, i recognize that tomorrow is the, coming up on the shortest day. we've actually had some really short days in alaska. it's pretty dark there right now. i was home over the weekend. but i will tell you with the passage of this bill and the long awaited opportunity to access our resources in the 1002
6:19 pm
area for the benefit of alaskans and for the benefit of our country, the days ahead look brighter for all of us. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. reed: thank you, mr. president. tonight the republican leadership intends to force a vote on their tax bill. president trump has called this tax bill historic and indeed it will make history but not for the right reasons. it is an historic transfer of wealth from students, seniors and working families to the wealthiest corporations and individuals in america and indeed throughout the world. historians and voters will look back at the way this bill was written in a rushed and sloppy manner, without thoughtful debate. indeed, we have to send it back to the house of representatives so they can vote again, it was so well crafted. and with a reckless and willful disregard for facts and
6:20 pm
independent analysis. in forcing this massive restructuring of our economy through congress, republican leaders have submitted no real amendments, ignored every nonpartisan analysis of their bill that does not fit their world view. as a result this trickle-down tax bill is quite possibly the most fiscally irresponsible piece of tax legislation to have ever been railroaded through congress over the objections of the american people. some will say, no, wait, the affordable care act. but let me remind you, the a.c.a. was paid for. it had fo get 60 votes. it was on the senate floor for 25 consecutive day. it was a full committee proces process, democrats accepted many republican amendments in the house and the senate. that's not the case with this historic bill. the trump tax bill will adversely affect my home state, rhode island, in many ways.
6:21 pm
the temporary benefits won't cover the long-term damage of this bill or offset costs for things like child care, education, health care and housing. the american people oppose this bill is simple. and they do oppose it. they do oppose it. it forces the middle class to accept yet another republican tax giveaway to corporations and the richest 1% with little or nothing for them. it gives trillions of dollars in permanent tax cuts to corporations while raising taxes on over half of american families over the next decade. and in doing so, it gives $48 billion to the foreign investors who own roughly 35% much american company stock. that's right, many of these benefits will go through corporations by either dividends or stock redemptions to foreign owners. $48 billion to foreign investors. that's not putting the american working man and woman first.
6:22 pm
that's putting them at the end of the line. it makes the tax code more rather than less complicated, and very clearly incentivizes or rewards multinational corporations who send jobs and stash money overseas. these pass-through entities will be a bonanza for tax lawyers and accountants, and people figuring out ways to get out of paying their taxes. it won't help working men and women who come in and punch in every morning, work hard, and then go back to their families. it won't help them at all. there's not a single respected economist or tax scholar on the left or right who considers that this bill simplifies the tax code and pays for itself. not one. the republicans know all these facts. they've heard the public's objections. and they still plan to send this bill to president trump for his signature. the president will try to tell the american people that his great political victory is a win for working people, but they
6:23 pm
see all the benefits going to his type of businesses: real estate pass-throughs. in fact, at the last moment the house put in a special provision to make sure that real estate entities could benefit from this bill. that means president trump's trump organization can benefit from this bill. it's not fair. it's not wise. it's not good policy. and the american people know this instinctively. they look at what's going on, and they see this as it is. a giant gift to the wealthiest corporations and individuals at their expense in so many different ways. and the consequences of this legislation are going to be staggering and generational. we will not quickly overcome this historic mistake. the total abdication of fiscal responsibility of this bill is
6:24 pm
stunning, adding trillions more to the deficit will put massive budget pressure on national defense, medicare, medicaid, social security, and other vital programs. and keep our commitments at home and abroad. these are the programs that do that. these are the programs that allow us to keep faith with the american people who sent us here, and also to ensure that we are moving towards a more peaceful and prosperous world. for future generations facing economic crisis or the challenge of their time while cyclical economic downturns that we cannot always foresee, those future generations will look back on this unnecessary tax give away and wonder why today's congress was so irresponsible. in 2001 i was here, and i opposed the bush tax cut. that time, however, we had an estimated $5 trillion surplus, and we didn't anticipate -- we didn't anticipate the 9/11
6:25 pm
attacks. we were at a time where russia was turning away from its communist past to what we thought was a democratic future. many china was emerging, just emerging as an economic power in asia. it's a totally different situation today. we all know it. my colleague on the other side know it. we are challenged by 16 years of war which we've made no attempt to pay for, and we are putting our national security behind benefits for the wealthiest americans that are enshrined in this bill, adding $1.5 trillion to pay for tax cuts for the most wealthy in this nation and indeed the world, because many, many of the recipients of our largess, republican largess this evening will not be americans. a significant portion of american stock, our company, are held by foreigners.
6:26 pm
and when the stock buy-backs take place -- because that's what the companies are going to do. they have already announced it. they'll take the paper profits from this tax cut, they'll move it over to the side where they can use it to redeem their stock or give dividends, and a huge amount of that will go outside the united states. not helping our economy. maybe helping some people buy expensive yachts overseas and expensive french impressionist paintings but it's not going to help local people in cranston, rhode island, not at all. it's a bill that's full of loopholes that will be exploited for years to come. indeed, we're already hearing rumors that they have to fix h some of the problems they've already discovered in this legislation before it passes. and we can expect more legislation to, ,quote-unquote, fix the bill. mr. president, this would be
6:27 pm
different if we were talking about real tax reform. real tax reform that benefited the middle class. real tax reform that raises the income tax credit. real tax reform that benefited people who work every day, wage workers specifically. this bill doesn't do that. real tax reform is the result of an open bipartisan process. it's ideally revenue neutral like the 1986 law under president reagan, which took a bipartisan consensus which made major reforms and which is something that was not only procedurally, but economically wise and sound. now i hope going forward we can work together to prevent and undo the damage from this bill and enact real responsible tax reform that boosts take-home pay, spurs job growth, closes loopholes, expands opportunity and strengthens the long term security of our nation. but that is not this
6:28 pm
legislation. one final point, this monday the president announced his national security tragic. his overarching vision of what will make this country safe, secure, and strong as we go forward. and part of that, part of that national security strategy is to reduce the debt through fiscal responsibility. well, my republican colleagues are about to increase the debt through fiscal irresponsibility. now this national security strategy isn't even 24 hours old, and it's being abandoned. and it's being abandoned before literally even the pen is dry on the paper because when it comes to tax cuts, national security, place us far to the rear. and we know what's going to happen. as this deficit grows, and it will grow. larger than the $1.5 trillion
6:29 pm
that's projected, and it grows, it will squeeze out spending. it will squeeze out defense spending despite the efforts on both sides to try to increase support for the military. it's just impossible to tolerate deficits, to create a deficit of this magnitude and not see the consequences both on the defense side and the nondefense side. in fact, i am just baffled because we have heard so much, particularly my republican colleagues, talk about the need to support our men and women in the field after 16 years of war. why aren't we down here at least saying if we're going to borrow $1.5 trillion, let's give it to the men and women in uniform? no. we're here tonight saying let's give it to the richest people in america and in the world. there is lots of rejoicing going on throughout the world tonight
6:30 pm
because when their stock is redeemed in the companies they own, they're going to be wealthier and they're going to use that wealth not for america, but for whatever reason they want. again, is it a new yacht or new painting? mr. president, i just hope that in the waning few hours of this debate that we can move the conscience or consciousness of colleagues and reject this legislation. and with that, mr. president, i would yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from nevada. mr. heller: thank you, mr. president. this week, mr. president, we are nearing the finish line on providing nevadans and all americans the real tax relief that they deserve and that they
6:31 pm
have been promised. as a member of the senate finance committee, i have been fighting every day for the senate to stay in washington even 24/7 until the job gets done, and today we're getting the job done. that's because i know just how critical middle-class tax relief is for the people in my home state of nevada. let me tell you why. the majority of americans are not only struggling to get ahead, they are struggling to just get by. it's been reported that nearly eight in ten americans who work full time are living paycheck to paycheck, and that's a slight increase from previous years. if you live in nevada, you're more likely to be living paycheck to paycheck than if you live in most other states. to put that into perspective, housing costs are reported to consume nearly a quarter of nevadans' paychecks. one report suggests that after the costs of living expenses are taken out of their paychecks,
6:32 pm
the average nevadan has little more than $700 left. during a recent telephone town hall, i heard from a teacher in las vegas who spoke about her stagnant wages. this teacher, like most americans, had not seen a meaningful pay raise in years. right now, for many americans, it's not so much about getting a raise. it's getting back to where we once were. in nevada, real median household income is $7,000 lower today than it was in 2007. let me repeat that, mr. president. in nevada, real median household income is $7,000 lower today than it was ten years ago. at the same time, child care expenses have skyrocketed. in this country, the average cost for an infant in center-based care can be as high as $17,082 per year.
6:33 pm
by the way, that's more than a semester at the university of nevada las vegas. it's more than a semester at nevada-reno. in nevada, that means that the average single parent could spend as much as 36% of his or her annual income to send an infant to a center-based care. giving rising housing and child care expenses alone, middle-class families in nevada and around this country are having a hard time covering day-to-day expenses and planning for their futures. nearly one in five americans have nothing set aside to cover an unexpected emergency. while nearly one in three americans do not have at least $500 to cover an unexpected emergency expense. so it's fair to say in nevada at least that the recession has never really ended. under the failed economic policies of the obama administration, nevadans suffered through eight years of
6:34 pm
historically low economic growth. think about that. in the eight years, the average economic growth was less than 2%. as a result of less than 2% growth, wages and workers suffered. job creation suffered. the middle-class americans suffered. and we're now at a crossroads. we have a chance to change course. we have an opportunity to pass meaningful tax cuts that lift middle-class families, our communities, and our economy. so if you're against this bill, you're satisfied with anemic 2% economic growth ushered in by the obama administration. you accept this dismal growth as the new normal. but i'll never accept this as a new normal. i think we can do better. in fact, mr. president, i know we can do better. we have already seen improvement since president trump took office. if you're against this bill,
6:35 pm
you're against giving small businesses the chance to actually get off the ground and hire workers. you're against giving them a better opportunity to expand, to invest, to increase wages, to hire more workers. but i know that our small businesses employ nearly half of all u.s. workers, and i know this bill will make it easier for them to continue doing what they do best, and that is creating jobs. and lastly, if you're against this bill, you're against tax cuts for the middle class because that's what this bill is all about. and if you know that nearly one-third of americans don't have $500 to cover an emergency expense, then you know just how important a few extra dollars per month are to them. i do, and that's why i have been fighting to get this bill to the president's desk. earlier today, i was pleased to see that the house passed the conference report reconciling our two tax reform bills, and i look forward to soon having the
6:36 pm
opportunity to vote in support of this pro-growth package that delivers critical, important tax relief to america's middle class and small businesses. a pro-growth package that will help boost jobs. a pro-growth package that will increase wages. and a pro-growth package that drives growth in our local communities. a pro-growth package that gives a nevada family of four making $85,000 per year a tax cut of $2,254, or roughly a relief of 20% of their tax liability, according to the nonpartisan tax foundation. today our small businesses and middle class suffer under an outdated and middle-class tax code that crushes job creations, makes it harder for nevadans, people all across this country to get ahead. the fact is simple. after 30 years of disrepair and neglect, our current tax system needs to be fixed. everybody knows it doesn't work,
6:37 pm
and it's rigged against our job creators, and that it should be overhauled. and these are the very problems that our tax relief package helps address. i also spoke recently to an ambitious and hardworking nevadan, an entrepreneur who started his own business while going to school full time. this young job creator brought up the enormous amount of money he's paying in taxes, as well as how complicated it is to navigate the current system. he also spoke of an uneven playing field to tip the system in favor of his foreign competitors. he wanted to know when congress would deliver on reforms to boost the competitiveness of all american job creators. lastly, just this last week, i ran into a small business owner who said he paid $160,000 in taxes last year. he said that $160,000 amounted to two pieces of machinery that he could have installed at his
6:38 pm
small manufacturing facility. machines that would necessary estate the creation of two highly paid jobs, jobs that would have been created before our unfair tax system. from their perspective and from mine, nevada has been waiting too long for a fair, simpler tax code that they can enjoy. nevadans, like most americans, know how important passing this tax relief package is to our country's economy. nevadans have been increased -- have seen increased levels of economic growth under this new administration and know that this tax relief bill will add to it. so let's talk about what this tax bill does and does not do. this tax bill lowers individual tax rates across the board and lets taxpayers keep more of their hard-earned money. this tax bill roughly doubles the standard deduction used by most taxpayers, giving a massive tax cut to the roughly 90% of
6:39 pm
nevadans expected to use it. this tax bill includes my amendment to double the child tax credit, an increase of $1,000 per child over current law, which will go a long way towards addressing the skyrocketing cost of child care in my state and across the country. this tax bill also includes my amendment to make it easier for start-ups and businesses to give lower level employees an ownership stake in their company's success by awarding stock options. this tax bill protects and expands the medical expense deduction for our nation's most vulnerable, as well as preserves popular retirement savings options such as 401(k)'s and individual retirement accounts. this bill does not change the tax treatment of student loan interest. it does not change graduate tuition waivers, does not change the tax treatment of employer-paid tuition or a
6:40 pm
teacher deduction. it preserves the tax exemptions for private activity bonds used to finance private projects with a public benefit. these bonds benefit a wider array of individual and organizations such as charter schools and are of great importance to the home school community. overall, this tax bill accomplishes my three major goals, one, creating jobs, two increasing wages, and three, boosting american competitiveness. regardless of the tales of my friends from across the aisle, i want to tell you this bill does not only cut taxes, but it also increases wages. today we have a prime opportunity to provide real tax relief to nevadans and other americans who have been waiting for a fairer, simpler tax code. real relief that lets the middle class keep more of their hard-earned money and make our tax code easier to understand. less paperwork, more money in
6:41 pm
people's back pockets. real relief that also produces more quality jobs, produces higher wages and growth in our communities. this tax relief bill is a positive step towards restoring nevadans' faith in the american dream by providing tax cuts for middle-class families jumping starting job creation, higher wages, and economic growth. i'll continue to work with my colleagues in both chambers to ensure that this desperately needed legislation makes it across the finish line to the president's desk before the end of this week. mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from indiana. mr. donnelly: mr. president, i rise today to discuss the tax bill. mr. president, i am disappointed see, i'm one of the many americans who believes we need to reform our tax code to
6:42 pm
benefit middle-class families. i also believe we need to make those reforms in a commonsense, responsible way. that's, sadly, not the approach that was taken with this legislation. from the very beginning of this effort, i have been willing to partner with republicans or democrats, with president trump and his team. in fact, when president trump unveiled his tax priorities in my home state of indiana, i traveled with him on air force one. i wanted him to know i was listening to his priorities and that i agreed with his stated goals of supporting the middle class in keeping jobs right here in america. i also wanted hoosiers to know i was committed to working with the president to reform our tax code in the way that helped hoosier families and businesses.
6:43 pm
after that trip with the president and in every meeting with the administration, including two meetings at the white house, attending vice president pence's speech in anderson, indiana, and in multiple discussions with top administration officials, i left optimistic that we could work together to reform our tax code to achieve those goals we had agreed upon. i expected a proposal that was focused on cutting taxes for middle-class families. i expected a proposal that would help keep jobs in america and take away tax incentives from corporations that flagrantly outsourced jobs to foreign competitors. n -- in foreign countries. unfortunately, that is not the
6:44 pm
bill that the majority leader pushed through the senate, nor is it the final bill that he and the speaker of the house agreed upon. the reasons i oppose this bill are plain and simple. clear and common sense. instead of providing a tax cut that overwhelmingly benefits the middle class, this bill cuts taxes for the wealthiest americans while raising taxes on a majority of families making less than $75,000 in the coming years. instead of closing tax loopholes like the shameful one that allows wall street hedge fund managers to pay a lower tax rate than a hoosier firefighter, than a hoosier teacher, than a hoosier policeman or a hoosier
6:45 pm
steelworker, imagine that. a hedge fund manager's tax rate is lower than that man and woman who are fighting a fire in evansville this year. this bill preserves these giveaways. this is outrageous. instead of protecting american jobs by adopting provisions from my end outsourcing act, an effort that president trump has told me on numerous occasions that he is all in on and supports, instead this tax bill does zero to claw back tax breaks and incentives awarded to corporations that later decide to outsource american jobs. it also retains loopholes that allow corporations like rexnord and carrier to continue deducting the moving expenses
6:46 pm
when they ship those american jobs to other countries. imagine that, a tax deduction for the moving expenses to ship american jobs to other countries. left it alone. there perhaps is no better example of an issue on which the president and i agree on than preventing the outsourcing of american jobs. right now in my home state of indiana, nine companies have outsourced or will outsource the jobs of 2,200 hoosiers. this is impacting moms and dads, sisters and brothers, wives and husbands, our neighbors, our friends. this is our opportunity to stand up for american workers and make it clear that if corporations want a lower tax rate or special
6:47 pm
tax deductions, if they want the american taxpayer to invest in them, then they must invest in american workers. that's the conversation i had with the president when we talked about our shared goals for tax reform. and these are the issues where i know there is common ground. and yet, as gene sperling, formerly the chief economic advisor to two different presidents, recently wrote, if there is one thing the republican international tax bill was advertised to accomplish, it was that it would favor locating jobs and profits in the united states. it does the opposite, expanding the degree our tax system tilts the playing field against american taxpayers and american workers.
6:48 pm
mr. president, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to enter into the record this column by gene sperling recentl publishede atlantic entitled how the tax plan will send jobs overseas. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. donnelly: thank you. the are the majoritbill is hurtd undercutting thousands of working american families. in indiana, we know there's no such thing as a free lunch. in the hoosier state, we work hard and we expect everyone else to pay their fair share. the tax bill we're considering cuts taxes for corporations and the wealthy by asking some
6:49 pm
middle-class families to pay more. and by making health care more expensive for millions and millions of americans. according to the nonpartisan, the nonpartisan committee for a responsible federal budget, if we account for budget gimmicks, the cost of this bill could reach $2.2 trillion -- not billion -- trillion dollars. here's what that means. this means our kids and our grandkids, their paychecks, the hard-earned money they make in the years ahead will be sent to china to pay for tax cuts that will be given today to the
6:50 pm
wealthiest people in america. our kids and our grandkids will be paying the bill for this tax cut that puts money in the pockets of the very, very wealthiest. that is almost beyond belief. we need tax reform that actually benefits hoosiers, who go to work in the dark and come home in the dark. these are the folks that i run into at church or who stop by my office or i see at the gas station or at the diner. they look me in the eye and they tell me they're working hard to make a decent living to pay the bills, to raise their family, to have a shot at retiring with dignity. they're not looking for any
6:51 pm
handout. they simply want a good-paying job and a fair shake. unfortunately this bill is a significant missed opportunity to provide relief to middle-class families and to protect american jobs. from the very, very beginning of this debate i've engaged in a good-faith effort to exchange ideas and priorities for what we like this tax bill to look like and to work together in a bipartisan manner. and i've worked to improve the bill that my colleagues have rushed through, a largely closed and partisan process. that includes my support for senator rubio's effort to expand the child tax credit for hardworking families, to which i give him much credit. our country is stronger when we work together an and when we pas
6:52 pm
legislation that focuses on the middle class and regular families that leaves a better future for all our children. sadly, that is not what this bill would do. this bill raises taxes on many middle-class families, makes health care more expensive. it does not address outsourcing and significantly increases our national debt. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: today we have the opportunity to pass sweeping
6:53 pm
changes to our tax code in more than 30 years. this historic moment is long overdue, and my constituents in iowa will benefit from it. since the last tax reform effort in 1986, the tax code has grown out of control in both length and complexity. all told, taxpayers spend over x billion hours annually just complying with the dictates of the internal revenue code. moreover, our outdated corporate tax system puts american companies at a competitive disadvantage as they try to compete in the 21st century global economy. the tax cuts and jobs act will make good on our commitment to
6:54 pm
provide significant tax relief to middle-income taxpayers both in my state of iowa and the entire united states while making the tax code simpler, fairer and obviously more pro-growth. the bill provides significant tax simplification for the vast majority of tax filers. most taxpayers will find they're better off simply by taking the standard deduction. no longer will they have to spend hours sifting through receipts and forms to determine what they can and cannot deduct. middle-income taxpayers can also expect to see significant tax cuts. a median income family of four could see their tax bills reduced by over $2,000.
6:55 pm
this is relief that families will see almost immediately as less tax withheld from their paychecks. this tax relief stems from many profamily and promiddle-class income tax provisions in the legislation. first, there is the nearly doubling of the standard deduction. for families, this means the first $24,000 of their income will be exempt from tax altogether. as a result, a significant number of lower-income americans will be removed from the tax rolls entirely. second, the middle-income tax brackets are significantly lower and expanded to include more taxpayers. this includes reducing the
6:56 pm
current 15% bracket to 12%, and the 25% bracket to 22%. third, the tax bill specifically recognizes the costs associated with raising a child by doubling the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000. furthermore, to ensure lower-income families with children are able to benefit from this expansion, the refundable portion of the tax credit is increased from $1,000 to $1,400. while my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have attempted to claim this tax bill is all out to help the wealthy, i want to make very clear this is simply not true. this is evidence from the
6:57 pm
features of the bill that i just discussed. but also, if you need more evidence, look no further than the distribution analysis of the bill by the nonpartisan joint committee on taxation of the congress of the united states. according to the analysis of the joint committee on taxation, on average every income group will experience a tax cut with the largest percentage tax cuts going to the middle-income groups. moreover, the tax bill would provide the tax code more progressive with taxpayers earning more than $1 million, then shouldering a larger share of the tax burden than they do under current law. the bill also enacts much-needed
6:58 pm
tax relief for job creators. it provides a significant reduction -- significant deduction on business income for small businesses effectively lowering the tax rate to under 30%. all small businesses down to the smallest family-owned corner store, and the family farmer stands to benefit from this provision. as small businesses are responsible for creating the majority of new jobs, this is a key provision promoting economic growth and job creation. additionally, the bill lowers the statutory corporate rate down from the highest in the developed world to 21%. the highest in the developed
6:59 pm
world at 35% makes our current corporate tax rate on american companies the highest of those industrialized nations, and puts us at a competitive disadvantage globally, costing american jobs. moreover, and this is important, for the john deere workers in waterloo, iowa, or any other corporation, economists generally agree that a significant portion of the corporate tax falls on workers in the form of reduced wages. estimates of this burden of the corporate tax on workers ranges from a low of 25% to a high of 70%. while the exact amount may be debated by economists, one thing is very clear.
7:00 pm
a corporate rate reduction will result in bigger paychecks for hardworking americans. these business tax reforms are crucial to getting our economy growing. we can't continue to settle for the anemic growth of less than 2% that we have experienced since 2010. lower tax rates, coupled with greater expensing of depreciated equipment, under the bill, will encourage new capital investment that is necessary to increase product ivity. the bill before us signals the faith that we have in the ingenuity and the --
7:01 pm
entrepreneur spirit. we do this to get our economy on the right track, and this legislation will put us on the right track. in all, tax reform will put more money in the pockets of middle-class americans, make u.s. industry and workers more competitive and get the economy growing again after eight years of stagnation, the most stagnation in any decade since world war ii. this is an historic opportunity to help americans from every walk of life. i look forward to joining my colleagues to pass this once in a generation tax bill and have it signed into law before the new year. i yield the floor.
7:02 pm
mr. udall: mr. president. thank you, mr. president, for the recognition. i rise to also talk about the tax issue and this horrible tax cut. but i can't help but mention what i went through the last hour or so with some wonderful young people in my office. first of all, these -- there are 7,000 dreamers in my home state of new mexico. here's one of them. this is carlos. carlos was brought to new mexico from mexico when he was less than 1 year old. and new mexico is the only place that carlos has known as his home and i -- i have the opportunity to visit with a number of young people that are very much like carlos. they've gotten in a bus, they've
7:03 pm
come to washington, they call themselves the new mexico dream team, and it's a remarkable story. they -- they told many stories to me about their situations that sounded very much like carlos' story. they urge us to protect them. they are fearful, they are emotional, but they are also strong and courageous. and let's remember these are some of our very best and brightest young people. we cannot lose them. we must continue to fight for a clean dream act, no doubt about it, and we need to remember the 11 million undocumented immigrants that are here in the united states and strive and fight for true immigration reform. and i ask consent to have my tax
7:04 pm
speech at another place in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. udall: mr. president, working families in new mexico want good jobs and fair wages. they want affordable health care and retirement security, they want a job and educational opportunities for their children, but, mr. president, the republicans latest tax plan does nothing for regular families in new mexico, or across the country. it won't create good-paying jobs, not now, nor for our children. it will kick 14 million people off of health care. their plan threatens medicare, medicaid, and social security. and it does nothing to improve public education or bring down the high cost of college. the republican tax plan overwhelmingly benefits the rich by giving huge tax breaks to their campaign donors, to the
7:05 pm
super wealthy, big corporations, multinational businesses, and hedge funds. one of the biggest problems is that the republican plan will drive up the debt by $1.5 trillion, and that means it will take -- it will take a hatchet to programs that working families rely on. this is not a responsible or a fair tax plan. it's a hockeyus poke -- hocus-pocus tax sham, and i oppose it. i have to reflect a little on this first year that we've seen under president trump and the republican majority. what a year of lost opportunities. if the republicans had worked with us during this year, we could have had at least two big achievements, bipartisan
7:06 pm
achievements. we could have had a bipartisan improvement on health care, built on the successes of the affordable care act and we could have had a fair tax bill for all americans. how sad partisanship and politics got the upper hand. the senate and the house majority are pushing this tax scam as fast as they can to hide it from the american people. we have not had proper hearings, we have not had expert witnesses or independent analysis. even the republicans don't know what's in it. my office met with many new mexicoians raising many new flags of the unintended consequences of this new bill. no member of congress, not democrats or republicans, has had enough time to digest an understand in plan -- and understand this plan. when it comes to legislation this important we must see a
7:07 pm
full analysis by the congressional budget office and the joint commission on taxation. we must hear from the best tax experts in the country. the american people must understand the plan and every member of congress must fully understand its impacts. we're not there. republicans and the president are being straight about what this plan will mean. they are not being straight about what this plan will mean for the average american. they are not talking about how it will affect the president's own personal taxes. he touts it as a tax cut for the middle class, working americans, but not one single objective analysis says it's designated to help the middle class. and his treasury department's one page, so-called analysis, predicting a $300 billion surplus is built on unrealistic
7:08 pm
growth assumptions that no serious economists accept. even republicans said that the bill is about helping their donors and cutting taxes for big corporations. the american people are not blind. they aren't fooled by the administration's fake numbers and they oppose this plan. recent polling has -- as recent as december 13, shows that 55% of americans disapprove of the bill. 65% say the wealthy benefit the most and almost all pollsters come out somewhere in that range. now, let's look at some of the hard, cold numbers. first we know that the republicans proposed aing $1.5 trillion to the debt over the next ten years. this chart shows the difference between the federal deficit under current law and the massive increase in the deficit
7:09 pm
under the senate republican plan. current law is in blue, as you can see here, and the republican's plan is in red. pretty dramatic. pretty dramatic. republicans represent themselves as the party of fiscal responsibility, but enin -- but incurring this amount of debt to give tax breaks to the rich is patently irresponsible. to pay for this debt the government will have to borrow securities and savings bonds. based on the joint commission on taxation and the c.b.o., the government cost to borrow to pay for this debt will be $40 billion over the next ten years and even more after that unless we pay off the debt. the american people will be on the hook for $1.5 trillion.
7:10 pm
that's 12,7 -- $12,742 for much and every american household today. my colleagues have come to the floor saying this tax bill will provide an average tax cut of around $2,000 for one year in 2019. what they aren't telling you is that they are also opening a line of credit on you and your family of $12,000. this is the new federal debt that we'll be taking out on every american's name every year by the g.o.p. so much additional borrowing by the federal government can also drive up interest rates. higher interest rates mean higher costs for government to borrow. the congressional budget office estimates that if interest rates are 1% higher annually than projected through 2027, the debt will be $1.5 trillion higher.
7:11 pm
that's 6% of gross domestic product and the amount each american owes on their new forced federal credit card would go up even more. increased federal interest rates have real consequences for the average american. a rise in rates can price out a first-time home buyer, it can determine whether a young person can afford to buy a car. the average american consumer does not want to see interest rates go up. and increased government borrowing and interest rates can take up the economy's lending capacity and discourage the very private investment republicans say they want to encourage. giving massive tax cuts to the wealthy also will force massive cuts in revenue coming into the federal government. when i first arrived in the senate, senator kent conrad from
7:12 pm
north dakota was chair on the budget committee. he was a master on the federal deficit and federal budget. he understood the danger of racking up huge deficits and in 2011 the budget committee was concerned that the debt would affect the national security. senator conrad had a framework that he presented on the floor. he showed many charts that day. one showed that the government had a budget surplus for only five of the last 50 years. that was in 1969, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001. in those years revenues were close to 20% of gpt. -- gross domestic product. around the time to time the simpson-bowles commission found that the government needed revenue equal to 21%, but the
7:13 pm
republicans current tax cut legislation would leave the government with revenue of only 17% of g.d.p. former treasury secretary larry summers sounded alarm bills in an op-ed in "the washington post" on december 10. bruce bartlett was an economic advisor to presidents reagan and george w. bush. in a september "washington post" op-ed, he freely acknowledged, and i quote here, had a hand in creating the republican tax myth. he's referred to the myth that tax cuts lead to robust economic growth. mr. bartlett now says, and i quote, republican rhetoric around tax cutting is, quote, wishful thinking. in reality there's no evidence that tax cut would spur growth. in other words, tax cuts won't spur economic growth. they will create more debt,
7:14 pm
squeeze consumers, mean steep cuts to vital government programs. so why is the majority pushing so hard for them? why do they want this tax cut bill so badly? there's really only one reason for their -- reason -- for their donors. representative chris collins of new york was honest about why he has to deliver tax cuts. he said, and i quote, my donors -- and this is his quote, congressman collins -- my donors are basically saying, quote, get it done or don't ever call me again. making the super rich even richer doesn't justify burdening our kids with huge government debt. it doesn't excuse threatening american health care, retirement security, and other vital programs. but cutting vital federal programs is exactly the price that the middle class and working americans will be expected to pay under the
7:15 pm
republican tax plan. their plan calls for $500 billion worth of cuts, and speaker ryan is already talking about where they will cut. he said, we're going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform where -- and that is how you tackle the debt and the deficit. frankly, it's the health care entitlements that are the big drivers of our debt, so that we spend more time on health care entitlements because that's really where the problem lies, fiscally speaking. he wants to starve the treasury to benefit the wealthy, and then he wants to slash critical programs that create jobs, support innovation, secure our nation, and help people pay for housing, food, and medicine. i want to support tax cuts for middle-class families. i want to help make sure working
7:16 pm
people can take home more of their pay. i also want to make sure we can pay for roads and bridges and schools and scientific research and national defense. mr. president, this bill doesn't do that. it does exactly the opposite. it takes money from the middle-class families and it gives it to the ultra rich. and then it leaves us with little to support our communities, little for infrastructure, little to make the united states of america continue to lead the world in innovation and science and economic might, and little to ensure we take care of those in need. this bill also fails indian country while giving billions of dollars of tax breaks to corporations, this bill does nothing to spur economic growth or attract investments in our native communities. not even basic low-cost provisions to ensure that tribes receive the same tax benefits as
7:17 pm
other governments, like state governments. once again tribes have been overlooked by the majority despite early and vocal tribal input on tax parity in indian country. mr. president, i'm prepared to roll up my sleeves and work with republicans on tax reform that is fair, that simplifies the tax code, and keeps american businesses competitive. but i cannot support tax cuts that lopsidedly benefit the ultra rich, hurt working families, neglect indian country, and balloon the federal deficit. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. tester: i want to thank the president for recognition. thank you very much. tonight once again congress is proving to the american people that washington is broken. this bill is not a product of deliberation of the world's most deliberative body.
7:18 pm
it is not a product of meaningful public hearings. it is not a product of compromise or months of hard work between multiple committees. and it is certainly not a construct of a grand legislative idea that was desperately needed to meet the demands of the public. the bill in front of us is the product of dysfunction, partisanship and political desperation. 30 years ago the senate passed president reagan's tax reform 97-3. after the conference committee had worked it over, it passed overwhelmingly by, with 74 votes. that could have been the case today. but there was never an attempt to have an honest debate about this bill, and there was no attempt to get bipartisanship by-in.
7:19 pm
i reached out to lend my perspective and montana's perspective, the perspective of rural america, but my offer fell on deaf ears and i never heard back. i asked the president to work with me. i raised my concerns early, and they never made an attempt to address those concerns. there was no effort to reach across the aisle to build consensus for this bill. once again the leadership of this body chose to draw a line in the sand. they chose to empower the fringes and leave those in the middle out in the cold. as a result, the first major tax bill in congress in a generation will likely pass with only support of one party. that is not what the founding fathers had in mind. as for me, i wanted a tax bill that would ensure hardworking montana families and businesses had a say in this process.
7:20 pm
i wanted to construct a bipartisan bill that provided folks with tax relief without adding to the debt. and i wanted to simplify the tax code without gutting provisions that would help build our middle class. but today we're stuck with this final bill that does none of those, and our options are yes or no. now, there are some things in this bill that are good. three to be exact. this bill keeps in place important medical deductions that benefit seniors and helps them pay for care as they age. it expands the child tax credit to provide a boost to families across the country. it lowers income tax brackets to keep a few extra bucks in your pocket each year. but when we look at the bill, we have to weigh the good and the bad. so speaking of those individual tax cuts, the once i just talked about a few seconds ago, well, they're only temporary.
7:21 pm
they're short term promises that will disappear with the wind. and estimates show that more than 80% of this bill benefits will go to the top 1%. 60% go to the top one-tenth of one percent of our population. in fact, hardworking families will actually see a tax hike within ten years. but this country's biggest corporations, this bill makes their tax cuts permanent. so at the same time that taxes start rising for teachers, farmers, electricians and working folks, large corporations and big businesses will still be reaping the benefits from the giveaways in this piece of legislation. on top of huge benefits, this bill makes no attempts to ensure these corporations will use the savings to create more good-paying jobs.
7:22 pm
this bill also destroys the foundation of our health care system, 13 million americans because of this bill p will become uninsured and everyone else's premiums will go up by about 10%. it will be more expensive to see your doctor. it will be harder for rural hospitals and clinics to keep their doors open. and more folks will end up in emergency rooms, the most expensive medical treatment. they will be be sicker and their treatment will be more expensive and the rest of us will be forced to pay for it. the bad list doesn't stop there. it forces a $25 billion cut to medicare. this bill pushes millions of people out of itemizing their deductions, reducing incentives to buy a home or donate to charity. it caps state and local income deductions which targets middle-class families. it changes the way we adjust tax brackets for inflation which will force future generations to play catch-up.
7:23 pm
it will force state budgets into the red and put critical health care, education, and law enforcement initiatives on the chocking block. and it opens up the arctic national wildlife refuge for oil drilling. but that's not the worst thing about this bill. the worst thing about this bill is it saddles our kids and grandkids with more crushing debt. you know, twa in 2008 -- it was in 2008 and 2009 this country was going through one of the worst economic crises since the 1930's. the debt was increased in that period of time. people often say the government needs to be run like a business. well, if you have a business and income is not coming in, you have to borrow some money. that's what happened. with the economic downturn, the money wasn't coming in, so our debt went up. on the other side if you're in business and you're making a few bucks and times are better and
7:24 pm
they're good, you pay that debt down. well, this country is in a lot better shape now than it was in 2008 and 2009. we should be paying that debt down at this point in time, not adding $1.5 trillion to it. now i'm going to tell you as shoor as i'm standing here today, within the first quarter of 2018, there will be folks standing up on the other side of the aisle saying we need to cut medicare. we need to cut social security. we need to take away subsidies for everybody, whether it be farmers, mothers, young families, disabled, veterans, money that's used to keep our public lands in public hands, dollars that are used to make education more affordable, dollars for health care overall. they will tell us that we simply cannot afford them because our debt is so high. but today, today we're going to tack $1.5 trillion on for the
7:25 pm
sake of giving the richest of the rich a tax benefit and middle-class families a temporary benefit that will go away over the next ten years. how they've so quickly forgotten the fiscal restraint that we've talked about when democrats controlled this body. our national debt is already above $20 trillion. this is more than $64,000 for every man, woman, and child in this country. the path we're on is truly unsustainable. it's not the first time we've been down this road. the bush tax cuts were sold to the american people and we were told they would pay for themselves. guess what? today those bush tax cuts are directly responsible for one-third of that $20 trillion debt. we know this to be true. yet here we are about to swipe the credit card one more time for over $1.5 trillion, to put our kids and our grandkids on the hook to pay it back while we
7:26 pm
get temporary relief and the large corporations get permanent relief. for those of us who were ignored during this process, this is what we're stuck with. some good things, but a whole bunch of bad things, more than i can count on my hands. we can't celebrate the good things and ignore the bad. just because we ignore it doesn't mean it's not going to come true. this bill will not strengthen the middle class. it won't improve our schools. it won't lower the cost for health care. let's call it what it is. it is a tax giveaway to the wealthy masked as tax reform. those that vote yes on this bill will do so at the expense of our kids and our grandkids. they will be paying this tab long after we are gone. what is ironic about this is most of the people that serve in this body say i am hiewr to make sure the next generation has opportunity. we are taking away their opportunity with this bill. it will limit their opportunity.
7:27 pm
it will cap their potential. all for what? well, i'm not really sure. as i go back to montana every weekend folks aren't stopping me on the streets and telling me the corporations and the wealthy need a tax giveaway. what they do tell me is we need to make sure programs like chip are around, we need to make sure medicare and social security are there for future generations. we need to protect our public lands. we need to pass a farm bill that works. we need to invest in infrastructure. well, folks, this tax bill takes away all that protection. we've been at war for 16, 17 years, the military needs rebuilding. it makes it much more tough. everyone knows what's going on in north korea. the potential to have to spend a bunch of money there is real. and infrastructure, whether it's highways and bridges or broadband or water systems, in dire need of help.
7:28 pm
but the fact is this bill's going to pass. and rather than working on the pressing issues around here, the next excuse is going to be entitlement reform which means we're going to do our level best in the name of the debt to gut medicare and social security and who knows what else will be put on the chopping block to be ripped away from working families. this bill ties our hands, prevents us from making the kind of investments we need to build a strong middle class which has been the envy of the world and it puts our most vulnerable at risk. i'm going to vote no on this bill because it is a step backwards. it raises the debt. it does nothing to solve the income and equalities -- inequalities in this country and it pushes the american dream further out of reach.
7:29 pm
mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from hi. mr. schatz: thank you, mr. president. i just want to cover what i think are the seven worst aspects of this tax bill. the first thing is that this is not a middle-class tax cut. credible, independent analysis of this bill found that the richest 1% of the united states gets $85 billion of the benefits in the year 2019. these americans will get a tax cut of more than $55,000 per person while taxpayers who fall in the middle of the road will get a couple hundred bucks. and many in the middle class class will pay more because of this bill. people making $30,000 or less will see a tax increase of about 10%. even foreign investors do better than the middle class in this bill. what do i mean by foreign
7:30 pm
investors? i mean people who don't live in the united states but who own stock or investors in american companies. in 2019, they will get a $48 billion tax benefit. that's a bigger benefit than more than half of the rest of the country will get from this bill. you have to work hard to design a tax plan to help the middle class less than this one does. "the washington post" looked at this plan a few weeks ago and found that it was the worst tax plan for the middle class in 50 years. and here's the thing. it shouldn't be that hard to do a middle-class tax cut, you just do a middle-class tax cut. the second reason it is horrible is that it is primarily written for special interest. republicans couldn't give americans a bigger tax break because they needed all of that money for special interests. real estate firms will see an
7:31 pm
immediate decrease in their taxes, for companies that build hotels, this is a great bill. over the next ten years financial firms will save $250 billion. over the next ten years financial firms will save $ 250 billion, the biggest single beneficiary, wells fargo. now, what i remember from last election was that the lesson that the voters were teaching us across america was a populist lesson. they were sick of the financial institutions and the powerful politically running us. here we are giving a tax break to wells fargo that had an 18% boost in earnings. they are mired in scandal after they bilked customers into buying auto insurance and made
7:32 pm
thousands of fake credit card and bank accounts. people are not getting a tax cut. corporations are getting a tax cut. and no one knows how we're going to pay for all of this, which brings me to number three. if passed, this bill will increase the federal deficit by a minimum of 1 point -- $1.5 trillion. now, with $1.5 trillion, we could pay down every single student loan in the country and still have money left over for middle-class tax cuts. instead we're going to make sure that wells fargo investors have another banner year. you know, there was an entire group of republicans elected to congress on the premise that the federal debt and deficit was too high and that we needed fiscal discipline and fiscal responsibility, and now they are adding $1.5 trillion to the deficit. number four, this bill is just bad economic policy. now, it is premised on the idea
7:33 pm
in a if you provide a tax cut for corporations that they'll share it, essentially. that you give money to a corporation and they take that money and they reinvest it in their physical plant. maybe they'll build a new factory or pay their people more. now, that sounds great. here's the problem. the corporate sector is sitting on an unprecedented amount of cash already. the corporate sector has lots of cash already, and so we have a lesson in what they will do with extra cash, right? if they were going to use extra cash to pay their people more or to invest more in physical infrastructure or expand their businesses, they would already be doing that because they are already sitting on record amounts of capital, but they are got doing that. what they are doing are stock buybacks and dividends. in other words, they are paying off their shareholders. when a group of american c.o.e. -- c.e.o.'s were asked
7:34 pm
what they were going to do with the windfall money they were about to receive. they did not say they would pay their people more or expand their businesses. they said they would do what they have been doing with their record amount of cash which is buying dividends. even at the macroeconomic level, this is not smart. number five, this is bad policy because it's a bad process. this bill was written in secret. it was rushed, and it was 100% partisan. we know it didn't have to be that way. one of the thing i said to some of my colleagues with whom i have a strong relationship is i said why don't we try to do this subject to a 60-vote threshold and if yound find we're -- if you find we're operating with you in bad faith, drop the threshold down to a 51-vote
7:35 pm
margin. at least you would have exhausted the possibility of bipartisan. they started with 51 votes. what does that mean? they never and wanted -- they never wanted to listen to be democrats. now the house sent over a bill that is so messed up they will have to vote again tomorrow. they are talking about a vote tomorrow to fix the garbage they sent over this afternoon, they are talking about an additional technical fixes bill for next year. this is the product you get when you don't have public hearings, don't have bipartisanship, and you don't take your time. number six, this bill is bad for health care. people's premiums are going to skyrocket and 13 million americans are going to go without health insurance. number seven, this bill increases income inequality. this bill changes our tax system to reward wealth over work. for me, american capitalism is
7:36 pm
about you work hard, you have a good idea, and you are rewarded. it is not about your dad was rich, he passed the money down, and you are rewarded. american capitalism is about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, but what we're doing with the tax code is unprecedented, except during the gilded age. what we're doing with the tax code right now is saying we -- is saying we value already being rich more than we value someone who is climbing that mountain. now, that is a foundational moral question. do we value work or do we value wealth? and the problem with this bill -- and we can go through process and policy and politics -- but the foundational problem with this bill is that through this document we are declaring that we value people's wealth that already exists. we value passive income more than we value earned income.
7:37 pm
and that's not good for the united states of america. that's the problem with this bill. we are telling people that we value people already having money more than people who are climbing that hill, and that's why i oppose this bill so strongly and i think that's why people across america, for the very first time at least in recent history, but maybe in american history, that you have a tax cut bill that is so deeply unpopular because people understand what a rotten piece of legislation this is. i urge my colleagues to oppose it, and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. toomey: thank you, mr. president. i rise to speak about the conference report we'll be voting on later this evening, but before i do that i want to mention a few folks by name who deserve a by thank you for the incredible work they did to get us to this terrific point we are at today.
7:38 pm
i will start with leader mcconnell. his vision and leadership made this possible and i am grateful for that. i want to mention chairman hatch who also helped to guide the finance committee which has the jurisdiction over our tax code. chairman enzi, the chairman of the budget committee, without a proper budget resolution this moment would not have been possible. chairman murkowski who has fought for so long to hope up -- to open up this little tiny postal stamp in an incredibly remote part of los angeles for -- part of alaska. senator cornyn who played a really important role. senators thune, portman, and scott with whom i worked very closely for an extended period of time to try to find the consensus that i think we reached among republican senators. i want to mention senator
7:39 pm
corker. i had many long and ultimately fruitful conversations with senator corker who just approached this in a very thoughtful and responsible way. i'm grateful for him. i want to mention some of the staff that worked incredibly hard on this. mark warren, who handles tax policy for senator thune and zack britsel who works for senator portman and andrew syracuse who works for senator cornyn, and bart massey who handles this will responsibility for senator enzi all did terrific work. a big, special thanks to some of the guys on my staff that did an amazing job. randy herndon joined my team earlier this year and did an extraordinary job. fortunately he has an incredible wealth of knowledge about tax policy and he was able to put
7:40 pm
that to work for pennsylvanians and americans. brad grant is my legislative director hop helped to guide this process and dan brant, who is my chief of staff and did some great quarterbacking. the senate finance committee staff worked incredible hours. jay, mark, and jenna and the rest of the senate finance committee staff, also brendon dunn in the leader's office who played an important roosevelt. speaker ryan and chairman brady played an indispensable role, as did tom bartold who leads the joint commission on taxation, quantifying every wrinkle along the way and the final product. i should also mention that the president provided constructive leadership along the way and we worked extensively with treasury secretary mnuchin and gary cohn
7:41 pm
from the white house. so, mr. president, this took a long time to come together and involved an enormous amount of work but i am so proud of what we have brought to the floor and what i believe we will pass later this evening. this started over a year ago when members of the finance committee began to tackle what seemed like a daunting challenge, the most ambitious tax reform in years. could we overhaul the tax code and achieve two important accomplishments and do it with the very narrow majority that we had knowing that our democratic colleagues didn't want to help with this process. we accomplished two big things. number one, we determined from the beginning that we would not attempt to bring a bill to the floor unless it lowered the tax burden on the families that we
7:42 pm
represent, middle income and lower-income families. that was number one. number two, we wanted to fundamentally restructure the business side of our tax code that american workers and businesses can compete and win in a global economy against anybody, and i -- i've got to tell you we did those things, and i think that's why this will pass tonight. first on the individual side. had is absolutely a direct suct for the vast overwhelming majority of low and middle-class taxpayers. they will pay less in taxes. by the way, most high-income taxpayers will have some savings as well. i'm in favor of lowering the tax burden on everyone. while not every individual will have a tax cut, the vast majority of people will. we do it through a variety of mechanisms, i won't go through all of them. but a couple of mechanisms is that one we doubled the standard deduction. what does that mean?
7:43 pm
that means that a couple filing jointly, the first $24,000 of income they earn doesn't get taxed at all. snreero, -- zero, nothing. they doesn't owe a dime to the federal government on the first $24,000 they earn. that one step alone results in a tax reduction for many millions of americans. but in addition, we lowered marginal tax rates so that the income people start earning above $24,000 gets taxed at lower rates under our bill than under current law. and we also dramatically increased the child tax credit so families with children get this additional benefit on top of the ones i just mentioned. the net effect of all of this is every single income category pays less in taxes. that's according to the joint tax -- that's the -- joint nonpartisan review of the bill and low-income tax earners
7:44 pm
receive the biggest benefit of all. those listening to this debate, whether in the cheam or watching -- chamber or watching c-span, i can understand they could be confused. they have heard me and other republicans say this is absolutely a tax cut for the middle class. who are they to believe? i understand that frustration. but let me suggest there's a simple way to cut through all of this. there's two, actually. number one, look what happened on the senate floor during the debate on this. the same sort of argument was taking place when a democratic senator offered an amendment to take our tax policy for low and middle-class families and individuals and make it permanent. now, if this was a bad deal for the middle class, presumably all the democratic senators would vote no, but they did not. they voted yes.
7:45 pm
they -- it was really quite an extraordinary compliment to our work that they offered an amendment to take what we did, which was not yet permanent. we weren't able to do that. we're going to come back and revisit that. but they took what we did and said it is so good we should make it permanent now. so i appreciate the comment, i appreciate the validation of the tax cut this is for low-income and middle-income families and we should work with them to be able to do that and i hope we do. the second thing we know where does the truth lie in this debate, in late january, early february check your paycheck. take a look. withholdings going to go down because you're going to owe less money to uncle sam so you're going to get a take-home pay raise. simple as that. the mystery will be all gone when people take a look at their check and discover, yeah, look at that, i actually got the pay raise that those republican guys said we were going to get.
7:46 pm
i'm looking forward to when that happens. and at that point i think this debate will shift to other topics is my guess. but i also want to touch on the tax reform on the business side, mr. president, because that is what i think is really likely to drive the economic growth and the opportunities that i want to see created for the people i represent. it comes in a context, the context is the weakest economic recovery in the history of the republic, after a very severe recession in 2008, we never really had the boon in recovery that we always had in the past. it's not a huge mystery why. our democratic friends had complete control of the elected government, and they did all the things they wanted to do. they had the ability, and they did. huge repeated tax increases with no reforms. a virtual takeover of health care. an avalanche of new regulations. and a massive spending binge. they did all of those things, and unsurprisingly we got a weak economy, not a strong economy.
7:47 pm
one of the specific problems that we have had that's plagued us ever since that recession is a collapse in the growth of thef capital stock which caused a claps in productivity. and without productivity it is not surprising that workers aren't getting wages. the path to higher wages for workers is allowing workers to become more productive. to be more productive they need better tools. and better tools are acquired through investment. that was lacking, mr. president, and that is the heart of what we're faiksing. -- fixing. reform goes to the challenge of lowering the cost of deploying capital. what do i mean by deploying capital? investing in the very kind of equipment that makes working more productive and allows them to earn higher wages. simple example, mr. president, if you go to a construction site and there's two guys working.
7:48 pm
one of them is working a backhoe and the other is working a shovel. they're both digging a hole, moving dirt. which one do you think is getting paid more? the guy operating the backhoe is always making more money because he's able to be so much more productive than any human can be with just his bare hands and a shovel. when we make it more affordable for businesses to go out and buy new tractors, new equipment, new machinery, that gives them the chance to put those more valuable tools in the hands of their workers. by the way, someone also has to build those things. someone has the job at caterpillar of making that tractor. someone has the job of making that vehicle. someone has the job of making the machinery. all of these things coming together are a very powerful driver of economic growth. not the only one. not only do we lower the cost of acquiring that equipment, we also lower the top rate that businesses pay. we have arguably the most uncompetitive tax code in the
7:49 pm
world, the top rate of 35%. what we do in our bill is we lower that rate to 21%, slightly below the average of the nations we compete with. pretty close to the average. this is going to just free up american workers and business to compete and win in all kinds of fields where we're getting beaten today. that's going to come to an end because when we have a chance to compete on the level playing field, american workers and american businesses, we compete and we usually win. we're going to get back to winning, mr. president. we also recognize that most businesses in america are not organized as c corporations. they're organized as pass-throughs, corollaries. we have a deduction that goes against their earnings. professional small partnerships
7:50 pm
don't get this treatment. i'd like to revisit that. i think we want to revisit that because i personally would like to see this treatment expanded to thatting ca. but the vast majority of businesses, partnerships, s corporations, c corporations is going to experience a tax cut that is going to allow them to compete. another important feature is moving away from this global taxation system we have. mr. president, we've all been so disturbed by the stories we have read about companies, american companies being acquired sometimes by a much smaller company overseas not because the economics of the transaction makes a lot of sense but because the tax code drives them. it just makes very little sense from a tax point of view to have a multinational company headquartered in the united states. we've been driving these transactions that are terrible, they usually cost us jobs, cost us growth. this comes to an end with this
7:51 pm
reform. we're not going to have this system where we punish business for bringing money back home to the united states. this punishment ends, and it's going to encourage a huge inflow of capital, of accumulated profits back into the united states because no longer will companies be facing a penalty tax unique in the world. that's over. very, very constructive development. so what does it mean, mr. president, when you take one of the world's worst business tax codes and you turn it into arguably one of the best? it means more investment. it means more people all around the world are going to want to invest in america. it means more americans are going to want to invest in starting a new business or expanding an existing business. it means more businesses will be able to afford the tools, equipment and vehicles that i referred to earlier. that's the source of economic growth. some of our colleagues on the other side don't seem to acknowledge that this is a reality.
7:52 pm
but there's no great mystery here. when you lower the cost of something, you get more of it. when we lowered the costs that we imposed on businesses becoming more productive, we will have more productivity. all of this comes at a very interesting time in the economic cycle, and what i'm referring to is the fact that we're arguably close to as what economists think of as full employment, 4.1%, 4%. very seldom does the american economy go below 4% for extended periods. what does that mean it means when this money gets put to work, when companies go out and start buying this equipment they need workers both to fill the arrested and workers to op -- to fill the orders and to operate the business. what happens when demand for workers goes up, upward pressure on the wages of those workers. this is the dynamic we've been waiting for. we're going to trirg that and
7:53 pm
watch this happen. i think it's going to start relatively quickly, probably next year that we will start to see upward pressure on wages. that means the people that i represent, they're going to find that they've got options. they've got higher compensation. they're getting a pay raise because -- it's not because employers wake up one day and decide i'll be more generous today. nothing of the sort. this is the only way they can hold on to their workforce, hold on to the employees that they need. so it's very likely that we're going to see an increasing share of the total economic output in the hands of the workers who produce it and i think that's a terrific development. a couple of other points i want to touch on briefly, mr. president. one is that this legislation also effectively repeals the individual mandate of obamacare. technically what we do is we zero out the penalty. the penalty for noncompliance goes to zero. so that's equivalent to repeal.
7:54 pm
first of all, this is a great strike fror freedom, in my view. it is appalling to think that the federal government has the right to force an american to buy a product against his or her will. a terrible infringement on the freedom of americans. of our democratic colleagues have described this repeal as a stake through the heart of obamacare. think what a damning indictment that is about obamacare. if it's a stake through the heart, if the only way obamacare can survive is if people are forced to buy the product against their wishes, what kind of product could that be? what kind of business model depends on forcing people to buy your product because they won't buy it if it's voluntary? not only is it a significant strike for freedom, it's also tax relief for low-income folks. this obamacare penalty in pennsylvania, my state, and i
7:55 pm
think my state is typical, 83% of the people who get hit with this tax penalty are in a household that earns less than $50,000 a year. this is more direct relief for low and middle-income folks. the last point i want to make -- and i see my colleague from ohio, who did amazing, great work getting us to this point. he was a pleasure to work with and enormously knowledgeable. i want to congratulate him for where we are. a quick word about the deficits. let me start with a very simple observation. i'm convinced when we pass this legislation and it is signed into law, the federal budget deficits will shrink as a result of this legislation. it's very simple, mr. president, and the reason i say that is the economic growth, the response to the reforms, the very profound reforms we're making, are going to give us a bigger economy to
7:56 pm
tax. and the extra growth, the bigger economy means more revenue to the federal government. so you ca reasonably ask how mue growth do you really need, though, in order to offset the lost revenue that comes from some of the changes you're making? fortunately that's a simple exercise in arithmetic. we know what the answer is. whether it's joint tax or the congressional budget office, a nonpartisan analysis is we will need to average between two and four tenths of a percent of extra g.d.p. growth each year on average for the next ten years. if we do that, then we will have a smaller deficit as a result of this legislation. not a larger one. for me, what this bill comes down to is a sinc is a skimp qu. if you believe in the capacity of the american people to revive the growth we used to take for
7:57 pm
granted. decade after decade of causing people to have this period of growth. we've had this period that's been stagnant. some of our friends think that's what america is now. the new normal, barely 2% growth if you're lucky. mr. president, i think that's nonsense and it's not true. i still believe in america. i still believe in american workers. i still believe in our system. i still believe that we are capable of restoring the kind of growth that has always been our birthright. i think this legislation takes a huge step in that direction. it is a direct, immediate tax cut and therefore pay raise for the hardworking people that i represent. and it is a series of reforms that is going to encourage economic growth, that will result in higher wages and a better standard of living as well. mr. president, i am thrilled with the opportunity we have tonight, and i urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation. i yield the floor.
7:58 pm
mr. brown: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: thank you, mr. president. i rise in opposition to this special interest tax break for the rich, trickle-down economics bill that history shows doesn't work. i want to thank my -- start by thanking senator wyden from oregon, the leader on our side, from the finance committee who's done very good work and gideon braggin in my office who has been one of the tax reform experts in this body. i want to thank both of them. this bill, mr. president, should, it should have been an opportunity for all of us to work together to put money in the pockets of working people. it's pretty simple. instead of cutting taxes for the middle class, though, washington chose to cut taxes for millionaires and corporations and pay for it by cutting medicare and kicking people off their health insurance. it ought to be pretty simple. if we want to cut taxes, if we want to talk about cutting taxes for the middle class, if we want to cut taxes for the middle
7:59 pm
class, then let's pass a bill to cut taxes for the middle class. instead of giving the money to corporations and the richest c.e.o.'s and relying on a bank shot hoping it trickles down, cut out the middle man. that's what my colleagues claim to want. that's what the president said to us and to the country he wanted but that's not what this bill does. this isn't a middle-class tax cut. not even close. according to the tax policy center, according to the tax policy center, 83% -- you'll see monopoly man here. 83% of the benefits in this tax bill go to the -- by the end of the decade go to the wealthiest 1% of this country. imagine, 83% of the benefits go to the richest 1% of people in this country. that's even worse than the senate bill passed, which wasn't that great, earlier this month. it was already pretty bad. 62% of the bill's benefits would
8:00 pm
have gone to the top 1% of households by the end of the decade. apparently 62% wasn't good enough for the republican members of conference committee. they thought that 83% of the benefits, 83% of the benefits should go to the richest 1% in this country. the bills actually got worse and worse and worse for middle-class families. how did the bill get this bad, for so-called pass-through businesses and corpses which benefit the richest in this country. it got this tax cuts for middle-class families. the corporate tax cuts are permanent, they last forever, the tax cuts for individuals, inadequate and modest as they are, expire after a few years. gee, i wonder why they did that. through a new way of calculating
8:01 pm
inflation. that doesn't take into account the millions of americans, and my colleague from pennsylvania who was part of it that night, brought in the middle of the night put a new provision in the bill that will cost 13 million americans their health insurance. 13 million americans will lose their insurance under this bill. you know, i see all kinds of elected officials. we get insurance paid for by taxpayers, and my colleagues are willing to take insurance away from 13 million people, most of whom have jobs, they don't have jobs that pay what we make. they don't have health insurance like we have. they don't get pensions like we have. they are making $8, $10 an hour. they are going to take insurance, we, elected officials, will take insurance away from 13 million people and at the same time it will raise insurance premiums 10%. not 10% over time, 10% a year.
8:02 pm
if you're paying $500 a month now, you will pay $550 next year. our door as democrats has always been open. democrats, we represent half this country. democrats wanted a seat at the table. let me illustrate, a number of us in the finance committee, both parties, including my colleague from ohio, senator portman and senator toomey and others were invited to the white house to meet with the president to talk about the tax reform bill. i presented the president two bills that i have been working on. one was the patriot corporation act, which is pretty simple. it says if corporations do the right thing, if they pay good wages, if they provide good health insurance and pension benefits for their employees and they keep their production in the united states of america, they get lower tax rates. the other bill called the working families relief act is
8:03 pm
also pretty simple. it puts money directly in the pockets of people making $25,000, $50,000, and $75,000. the president said he liked both of my bills. after the hour and a half meeting, this was witnessed by the senators in both parties and a number of the cabinet members, after it i walked up to the president. i said thank you, and i handed him and gary cohn, who i am proud to say is from cleveland. i cap-and-traded them -- i handed them the bill. then the meeting started in mitch mcconnell's office. for people who don't work here and live here, i will point out, mr. president, down the hall 10r mcconnell's office. pass the ohio clock my state -- pass the ohio clock, 100 feet
8:04 pm
down the hall, senator mcconnell's office. now senator mcconnell -- the president of the united states said he liked the idea of the patriot corporation act, liked the idea of the working families relief act, but then he turned it over to senator mcconnell. you know what happened down this hall? wall street lobbyists after wall street lobbyist walked in that door and out that door. tobacco lobbyist walked in and out that door. oil company lobbyist after oil company lobbyist walked in and out that door. drug company company lobbyists from all over the country walked in that door and out that door. i walked in that door, they didn't literally carry bags of money out that door after they made their points and made their pitch, but they carried provisions in the tax bill that will make their employers bags of money. they didn't -- they didn't carry bags of money themselves. that would be uncouth. but they wrote provisions in the
8:05 pm
tax bill that will provide money for tobacco companies, wall street, drug companies. republicans made it clear, not that they would pass the patriot corporation act, even though the president said he liked it, not to pass legislation like the working families tax relief act, even though the president liked it. they are benefiting the one sort of person, corporate c.e.o.'s who grow their businesses when they ship their businesses overseas. we tried many times that if you shut down prowtion in mans -- production in mansfield or chilly koth or lima, they open a factory there and ship is back into the united states of america. you no what this bill did? -- you know what this bill did? it didn't close the hoop hole. it made -- loophole.
8:06 pm
it made it worse. it greased the skids for others companies to shut down faster in lima, portsdz myth and -- ports myth and move their companies overseas. republican leaders -- somehow -- they like to claim that somehow -- i heard this at the white house too. if you give a big are corporate tax increase, if you cut corporate taxes like this bill does, about 40%, that they said $4,000 will end up in the pockets of every working man and woman. that workers would get a $4,000 raise. nobody believed them, but that's what they said. you know why i know that's true? i know it's true because history shows any time they get big tax cuts, any time they bring money from overseas, the money doesn't go to employees' pockets or create jobs, it goes to give more benefits to the executives.
8:07 pm
their corporate pals -- the other reason i know that that's not going to happen that these dollars will not go to employees or go to investing in more jobs, their corporate pals let the cat out of the bag and made it clear they won't. c.e.o.'s from the largest corporations state plainly they aren't raising wages or hire more workers, what will they do? they will keep the windfall for themselves. imagine these c.e.o.'s in and out of senator senator mcconnels office, wall street, tobacco companies, all the other oil companies, they are going to keep it -- believe it or not these corporations where the c.e.o. is making $10 million, $12 million, that is not enough for them. if you're only making $20 million a year, you have to do something to juice it a little bit. they would keep that money for themselves. they will provide -- they will do bigger bonuses, they will do
8:08 pm
stock buybacks. they will do dividends. in this charade, i heard all this happy talk on the floor about how this will make americans more competitive and trickle down to the middle class. if you want to do a middle-class tax cut, darn it, do a middle-class tax cut. don't take out the middle man and give it to corporations and say, please, please, give us a middle-class tax plan. republican leaders had a chance to work across the aisle. i heard senator toomey said democrats didn't want to be involved. i heard senator cornyn say that democrats didn't want to be involved. i like those two gentlemen. i worked particularly with senator cornyn on a number of things and working on a couple of issues right now. they know that's not true. they sat in the white house meeting and they heard the president say to me and to senator senator mccaskill and senator wyden and senator stabenow, they heard us offer reasonable
8:09 pm
proposals. many of them were part of candidate trump's campaign. but then lo and behold, they said that democrats don't want to be a part of this. well, not exactly. we had pa bill to expand the child tax credit, a plan to reward companies that made jobs -- that made jobs here. all of that got jettisoned down this hall in senator mcconnell's office, 100 feet away where these deals were cut, theels -- these deals with the oil companies and tobacco companies and wall street lobbyists going in and out of his office. i the didn't see all of them come out, but i'm guessing that they had really big smiles on their face. these massive cuts for corporations come at a heavy price for the middle class. we know when 1% gets richer and richer and richer, we know the middle class shrinks. these massive cuts come at a heavy price. this bill will explode the
8:10 pm
deficit. even my colleagues who call themselves deficit hawks when there's a democratic president following the enforcer in chief, they call themselves deficit hawks when there's a democratic president. all of a sudden they say we'll grow out of the deficit. this bill, we know, explodes the deficit. we know what the plan is to deal with the deficit. you know what they do? they steal the money that americans have paid into social security and medicare. how do we know that? i am not saying that as a progressive democrat, i'm not just saying they will cut social security medicare. you know why i'm sure of it? i'm always pretty sure of it. but i'm sure of it because they said that. they made their plans crystal clear. speaker ryan says he wants to turn next year to what he calls entitlement reform. entitlement reform are retirement and health benefits people earn over a lifetime.
8:11 pm
you know social insurance, you pay into medicare when you need medicare when you're 65 you get this insurance. you pay into social security your entire life. you get survivor's benefits for your children or disability or retierp when you reach -- when you reach the age of 66. you pay into unemployment insurance, and if you need it, god willing you don't, but if you need it, you get help. that's what social insurance is. you pay for it and get help from society. it's society-wide social insurance. but ways and means chairman kevin brady said the next stop for republicans is to tackle entitlement. we know that this bill will cause huge deficits. they acknowledged it, two, three, four years from now. republicans will come to us after lobbyists have been down the hall, they will come back and say, you know, we have this huge budget deficit, we will
8:12 pm
have to raise the eligibility raise to -- age is maybe age 70. they said that we have to make these programs stronger and sustainable. nobody thinks they want them to be stronger, they want to cut them. that's how you save money, right? even,000 you -- even though you don't in the end. think about it -- a number of people in this body are past what society designated as a retirement age, 65. a number in this congress, particularly this senator. i mean, i work in my garden, i workout -- i work outside, i do things but i'm not -- i'm not working in a diner, i'm not working construction, i don't use my arms and shoulders and brain and legs to do my work. we work here, and we work in jobs, i'm privileged to have, and we get good compensation, we
8:13 pm
get good salary and benefits. but we're going to tell a bunch of people who work with their hands and brains and work with their arms and shoulders, we are going to tell the barber and the truck driver in evendale and the construction worker and the waitress in warren, we're going to tell the nurse in newark that they are going to have to work until they are 70 -- they are going to have it to work until they are 70. this tax cut causes a huge budget deficit, creates a huge hole in the budget, and who is going to fill the hole in the budget? not the lobbyists walking in and out of senator mcconnell's office down the hall. they are not going to have to pay for it. it will be the nurse in newark that has to work until she is 70, the waitress in warren, the construction worker in konia,
8:14 pm
pass this bill -- if we pass this bill 83% of the benefits go to the top 1% and this 83%, a lot of that blows a hole in the budget deficit, it will be paid for by working families. cut out the crap that this is something for working families. it is not. i'll say this about republicans in congress. they are making it easy for the american people to see whose side they are on. you're either on the side of every day working americans who are working more hours than ever before and getting too little pay for the hours they are working, they are working for them or working for the people in senator mcconnell's office down the hall. i want my colleagues to just picture this. i want my colleagues to think about this picture if this stream of lobbyists in and out of senator mcconnell's office, this stream of lobbyists from america's largest companies, tobacco companies, insurance companies, the companies that --
8:15 pm
that tend to run this government, i want you to think of that. i want you to think are you on the side of the workers doing the heavy work who can't work until they are 70 or on the side of c.e.o.'s? it's a pretty clear case, mr. president. it's a picture that is pretty obvious. americans deserve better. we can do better for them by starting from scratch with one goal in mind. if we want a middle-class tax cut, senator hatch, if we want a middle-class tax cut, don't talk about a middle-class tax cut. don't do trickle-down economics. if you want a middle-class tax cut, then darn it, give a middle-class tax cut. give a tax cut to the middle class. it's pretty simple. i yield the floor. mr. portman: mr. president. pr

46 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on