[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 27 (Wednesday, February 15, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1203-S1205]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
The Economy
Mr. PERDUE. Mr. President, I rise tonight to speak about the
opportunity our country has to move this country forward.
I appreciate the comments by my good friend from Michigan. I
appreciate all the comments in this hallowed ground called the U.S.
Senate. But I have to say that while I agree on some points, I disagree
on others.
The one I am really troubled by tonight is the fact the other side is
creating the ultimate shutdown in government right now. We had an
election. Our democracy has worked. We have a new person in the White
House. We have a new direction for our country. Yet this person in the
White House cannot even get his team approved in the U.S. Senate.
After some 27 days, I think President Obama had 26 of his Cabinet and
other appointees already confirmed. At this point, President Trump has
only 13 of his nominees. Quite frankly, had we not turned the Senate on
24/7 over the last few weeks, it would be until June or July of this
year before we could get the full slate of just the 15 Cabinet officers
confirmed. That is no way to run the Federal Government and, indeed,
shows the hypocrisy of the other side. They complain about shut down
this and shut down that. What is happening right now in the U.S. Senate
is that the
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other side is shutting down this administration from getting on with
the people's business of what they elected him to do.
Today, after 8 years of failed fiscal policies that have produced the
weakest recovery in 70 years, the lowest GDP growth on a per capita
basis in our history, a devastating time that left 4 million women in
poverty after the last 8 years and left many people struggling to get
from payday to payday--after those 8 years, tonight I am actually very
encouraged to finally be debating pro-growth tax ideas that can
actually grow the economy and put people back to work. We now have an
enormous moment of opportunity to change the direction of our country
and unleash a new era of economic growth and prosperity for every
American.
President Trump has repeatedly said that job one is growing the
economy. Personally, having worked in most parts of the world in my
career, I see this so differently from Washington. My perspective is
that of someone who has a global business perspective, not unlike that
of our President. I know the way forward is not complicated. We
absolutely can grow this economy.
There are three things this administration is already talking about
to grow the economy: One, they have said we need to deal with this
archaic, outdated, and noncompetitive tax structure that we have;
second, we need to push back on these arcane regulations that have
sucked the very life out of our economy; third, we need to unleash the
God-given energy potential that we have in our country today. The
bottom line is we have to create a more level playing field generated
by trade negotiations to allow us to compete on a level playing field
with the rest of the world.
The first two pieces of these changes are the changes to the Tax Code
and rolling back the regulatory regime. Several ideas from both
President Trump and Congress have surfaced in recent days to improve
our Tax Code: No. 1, lowering individual rates and cleaning up some of
the deductions to simplify the individual code; No. 2, lowering the
corporate tax rate to become more competitive with the rest of the
world and cleaning up corporate welfare deductions that confuse the
competition among players here at home and create winners and losers
inadvertently; and, No. 3, dealing with the archaic repatriation tax.
We are the last country in the world that has this tax, and it
penalizes our companies for competing abroad.
These three components of changing the Tax Code will make us more
competitive with the rest of the world, stimulate economic investment,
and spawn a new era of economic innovation in America. These changes
would help millions of Americans who have been crushed by this stagnant
economy for much too long.
I am encouraged that today there are so many of my colleagues in
Congress interested in generating new pro-growth ideas. It is a new day
in Washington.
I have long been an advocate of simplifying the way we fund our
Federal Government. In my opinion, the best way to do that is ideally
with a new system, like the fair tax, for example, which would move us
to a totally new tax system and completely eliminate the personal,
corporate, and payroll taxes we suffer through to date. I think all of
these ideas need to be considered, and none should be taken off the
table arbitrarily.
Having said that, one idea bears much scrutiny at this point in time,
and that is the so-called border adjustment tax now being discussed in
Congress. It would hammer consumers, shut down economic growth, and
ultimately grow the size of government.
In the last 16 years, under both Republican and Democratic
Presidents, the Federal Government has grown from $2.4 trillion in
constant dollars to $3.8 trillion last year--some 60 percent growth in
just two Presidencies, one Republican and one Democrat.
Tax schemes similar to the border adjustment tax in Europe grew the
size of those governments in Europe by more than 60 percent. That is
the last thing we need to be talking about right now, after we just
experienced a similar type of growth in our government over the last 16
years. Growing government with a new layer of complexity on top of our
existing income tax system is the last thing we need to be doing at
this point in time, when we should be talking about, How do we downsize
the Federal Government, make our system more competitive with the rest
of the world, create jobs, and create the atmosphere for capital
formation and innovation again?
Historically, lawmakers have crammed numerous proposals into single,
massive, overreaching bills. It is the Washington way. Those bills have
often hurt the very people that they claim to champion. When bad ideas
get mixed with good ideas, the bad ideas oftentimes become law. That is
exactly what could happen here if changes to the individual code, the
corporate rate, the repatriation tax, and this border adjustment tax
are combined into one sweeping bill. This is exactly what Washington
has historically done, and the results have been devastating.
Each of these proposals could be considered independently and
evaluated on their own merits. There is no reason we can't do that.
That is not possible today because many people here believe we are
locked into the Washington scoring equation instead of looking at the
real economic long term value of any of these ideas.
Many other countries, such as the United Kingdom, have faced these
opportunities, made decisions, and acted accordingly without combining
other extraneous ideas, and the results speak for themselves. Today,
the United States is in the least competitive position it has been, I
believe, in the last 100 years.
In the last 70 years, America has enjoyed the greatest economic
miracle in the history of mankind. It was developed on the back of
innovation, capital formation, and the rule of law, combined with the
best workforce in the history of the world. Those are four things that
America possesses uniquely, and which many other countries are working
hard to emulate.
For too long, the strength of our economy has been held down by
politicians in Washington and the unintended consequences that occur
when they try to interfere with the free enterprise system. It is time
to trust that free enterprise system to get this economy going again,
and change the rules to create a more competitive environment here at
home that will allow us to compete overseas on a level playing
field. It is time to simplify our individual Tax Code, reduce our
corporate tax rates, eliminate conflicting business tax deductions, and
eliminate the repatriation tax so we can once again become competitive
with the rest of the world.
In recent decades, many other countries have made these changes, and
we are losing our competitive edge. Today, I am encouraged to see both
Congress and the White House working together on policies that will
potentially grow our economy and bring relief to businesses and
families who have been crushed by improper fiscal policies that are
driven by political attempts to manage our economy.
Now is exactly the time to get these changes right. We have an
opportunity to change our Tax Code to a more competitive structure that
doesn't pick winners and losers, that doesn't penalize people for
successes, and that allows us to compete with the rest of the world on
a level playing field.
I like our chances if we can accomplish that, but let's not confuse
the issue with what may seem acceptable in Washington but is
devastating back home to men and women who are trying to create jobs in
their local economies.
We need to free up capital. We need to make sure the rule of law
supports the Constitution for every American. The American people
deserve Congress treating these issues individually and independently
to generate a simplified approach to funding our government and growing
our economy.
I hear the other side whine about not hearing any proposals coming
out of the White House. Donald Trump has been talking about what he
would do with the economy for the past 2 years. There is no mystery. He
wants to grow the economy. Job one, he said, is growing the economy.
That doesn't mean for the rich. That means for the working men and
women of America.
I believe they have a plan. It includes adjusting our tax system,
pushing back on unnecessary regulations that are sucking the very life
out of our economy and, finally, once and for all,
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unleashing this great energy potential that we have.
We already see moves today on some of the regulatory fronts, where we
see the new Secretary of HHS issuing a new rule today. We see the new
leaders that have been confirmed already taking action in this
administration. I, for one, am anxious to move forward with this
debate.
I applaud our compatriots in the House for bringing up these ideas. I
look forward to an open and active conversation, but now is the time
for the other side to begin confirming these nominees so that we can
get this economy growing.
I know you also are aware that our military is in devastating shape
now after 8 years of disinvestment and 15 years of war. There is enough
blame to go around here. This is not about the blame game. This is
about getting this economic situation right where we can fund our
military so we can defend our country.
I am very concerned that the other side is putting politics in the
way of solving some of these problems that we have that are so
devastating to men and women who are disenfranchised in our economy and
our men and women in uniform around the world who are put in danger
every day because we are not funding our military the way we should.
The time for rhetoric has passed. We are already past the tipping
point of the most serious, I believe, physical crisis in our history.
This debt crisis is very real. We don't need to grow the economy just
to grow the economy. We have to grow the economy because it is one of
several steps that are absolutely mandatory to solving this debt
crisis, and we will not and cannot solve our national security crisis
unless and until we solve this debt crisis. I am optimistic tonight
because we are beginning to talk about these very issues.
I yield my time.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Perdue). Without objection, it is so
ordered.