senator wyden had worked for two years with former senator gregg. they spent a great deal of time putting together a very comprehensive plan. senator gregg, as everyone knows here, retired after many, many years of distinguished service, was recognized as one of if not the leading proponent of budget stability, of economic growth, of all the aspects that go into dealing with economic situations. he's greatly missed. i had the privilege of being his friend, of serving with him and then having him encourage me to take his place in moving this legislation forward. i spent the last three months working with senator wyden, who is the coauthor of that along with senator gregg. we've made some refinements to this. we are introducing it today. we will be doing a formal introduction of it together in the coming days. but the agreement and the growing consensus i think that we hear from everyone is that tax -- comprehensive tax reform has to be a component of addressing our fiscal plight and getting us back into a period of sustained growth. s. 727 is the bil

to resolve that, the wyden-coats-begich legislation cuts the top corporate rate from 35% to 24%. that means american corporations will pay more competitive rate than corporations based in trading partner countries such as canada, germany, and france. to make the tax code fair, reduce opportunities for individuals in businesss to avoid paying their fair share of taxes, wyden-coats-begich bill ends a number of specialized tax breaks that favor one business sector or some special interest that has been fortunate to be down here lobbying in the years past for their special deal and makes sure everyone is treated fairly but ensures that we are competitive in the global economy that we now compete in. our legislation protects and extends important tax deductions for families. the wyden-coats-begich bill retains many of the most commonly claimed individual tax credits and deductions, including deductions for mortgage interest and charitable contributions, credits for children and earned-income, and preferences for the armed forces, veterans, and elderly and the disabled will be retained

wyden: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: madam president, in one cruel swoop late last week more than 300,000 americans lost the opportunity to buy affordable health insurance for years to come. specifically, madam president, i'm talking about the removal behind closed doors by the budget negotiators of the free choice voucher provision that would have been a lifeline to hundreds of thousands of low-income americans. now one could say, senator wyden, everybody's got to give a little during tough times. why is this different? the difference here is that hundreds of thousands of americans without health care options, in a process that doesn't even have any direct cost to the federal budget, are being asked to give up a guarantee of coverage just a year after the passage of the affordable care act. they're going to be forceed to make a hobson's choice between unaffordable insurance and going without health care directly contradicting the theoretical underpinnings of the affordable care act. under tha*es that provision --

today it is right there's one democrat that wants to do comprehensive corporate tax reform it's ron wyden and that's it he's the only one republicans are on board for streamlining the tax code lowering the rates getting rid of a lot of the exemptions which gets. in the one nine hundred fifty s. during the republican eisenhower administration a republican congress you know the top tax rate of ninety one percent on the very wealthy and corporate income taxes constituted thirty one percent of total government revenues things were doing pretty good right now corporate revenues are sixteen point six seven yards yeah right back if you travel right polls we are only those numbers held right up pretty much until reagan at the world were competing now with china and india as of the world and places like what governments of the world are right as china is also dies it's a great window lindsey wixson will be hello us is here with marilyn you're going to let me go in there. yes you know your medicine made america in. chicago have this great you know i think everybody knew unions and the tax rates fin

today it is right there's one democrat that wants to do comprehensive corporate tax reform it's ron wyden and that's it he's the only one the republicans are on board for streamlining of the tax code lowering the rates getting rid of a lot of the exemptions which gets. down to is your zero percent in the one nine hundred fifty s. during the republican eisenhower administration had a republican congress yet it's x. rated ninety one percent on the very wealthy and corporate income taxes constituted thirty one percent of total government revenues things were doing pretty good right now corporate revenues are six point six yeah right how could you travel right bowling we are only those numbers held right up pretty much until reagan had the world were competing that we chinese and indians of the world and places like yours would see with governments of the world right as china is also dies as a synonym for psuedo lynch who would say i will be below us is your very lame you're going to be all right. yes and you know you miss the main american people know them shipping our go have this great you

wyden: madam president, i rise to make a parliamentary inquiry. the senate will soon receive from the house legislation to fund the federal government for the rest of this year, h.r. 1473. normally spending bills like this one go through the appropriations committee. despite the fact that this spending bill that the senate will soon take up covers funding for the entire federal government, including all appropriations bills for the year, this spending bill never was even considered by the house or senate appropriations committee. mr. president, snuck into this massive spending bill are legislative provisions that typically are not allowed by senate rules to be included in the appropriations process. the senate has a rule, rule 16, that prohibits senate legislative amendments to an appropriations bill. despite this senate rule, the spending bill the senate will consider today includes provisions that are clearlying legislative in nature. specifically, i'm referring to section 1858 of the spending bill which repeals free choice vouchers from the aff

michael bennet, ben nelson, bob menendez, debbie stabenow, jay rockefeller, kay hagan, jeff merkley, ron wyden, mark warner, sherrod brown, tom harkin, chris coons, john tester, sheldon whitehouse, and senator mikulski and senator begich, myself and senator casey are the first two names because it happens to be our bill. it's the boxer-casey bill. so in closing, i want to just spread the word from here over to the house side that we are really serious, those of us who signed this letter. we are keeping this issue in front of the american people. because i assure you, if you walked out and asked anyone that happened to be walking down the street who was not involved here, didn't work for the federal government, and you said this -- in case of a shutdown, because the two sides failed to negotiate an agreement, the only people who are assured of their pay -- assured of their pay -- would be members of congress and the president, what do you think? i think the average person would say, that's wrong. they should pay a price. this is a basic function of theirs. to keep this government running, to ke