the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: throughout this process of tax reform, senate republicans explained time and again that we're fighting for the middle class. our opponents lobbed one attack after another claiming we were selling hardworking families short. of course that's completely wrong. and the tax bill we passed was written to help middle-class families from the very beginning. our goal was to make their taxes lower, simpler and fairer. under our legislation, the typical family of four making the median income can expect nearly $2,000 in tax relief next year. just yesterday we saw that tax reform has already inspired job creators to increase take-home pay for thousands of their employees. yet, not a single democrat joined us to pass this tax relief for american families. what's worse, just before we voted, senate democrats raised a point of order that proved who is really is going after low-income families. when given the chance, senate democrats, by the...

distinguished democratic leader. mr. schumer: as always, he's a gentleman as well as a great legislator and a great human being so thank you. i meant all of those very sincerely unrelated to him yielding to me. now, on year end issues, mr. president, we're staring down a litany of unresolved issues. we're quickly running out of time to solve them. not only do we need to pass an extension of government funding, but as i've said many times, we need to deal with budget caps, chip, community health centers, 702-5's, disaster supplemental and of course the dreamers. i believe we could have resolved all of these issues had my republican colleagues, especially in the house, not put them on the back burner while jamming through their tax bill. it's unclear still what the house is going to send us to keep the government open and whether or not it will be acceptable to the senate. at the same time, the house may move forward on an unacceptable disaster supplemental which still does not treat...