[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 130 (Tuesday, August 1, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4635-S4636]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Tax Reform

  Mr. President, on another matter--taxes--it is clear that our economy 
would benefit from a bipartisan package of changes to our Tax Code that 
would focus laser-like on increasing wages for working families, 
improving middle-class job growth, and promoting domestic investment, 
while modernizing our outdated business and international tax system.
  From what we have heard from the White House so far, its plan would 
not do any of that. We Democrats are open to a bipartisan discussion on 
those issues, but we also believe that, in an economy in which wealth 
is seemingly funneled to the already wealthy, it is working Americans 
who deserve tax relief, not those at the very top. The wealthiest 
Americans have seen outsized benefits from recent economic gains. Now 
is not the time to shower millionaires and billionaires with another 
tax break while working Americans continue to struggle to make ends 
meet.
  Today, 45 Members of the Democratic caucus sent a letter to our 
Republican friends, writing that we are open to bipartisan discussions 
on tax reform but that we will not support any effort to rewrite the 
Tax Code to give another tax break to the top 1 percent or add even 
more to the deficit and the debt.
  Here are our three principles outlined in the letter:
  First, no new tax breaks for the top 1 percent.
  Second, it must not increase the debt and must be fiscally 
responsible.
  Third, we must use a regular order process that will ensure true 
bipartisan input in the product, not the reconciliation process that 
was used in healthcare, which excluded the Democrats from the get-go 
and, in part, led to the failure of the Republicans to

[[Page S4636]]

pass repeal or repeal and replace. Ramming tax cuts through under 
reconciliation--the very same partisan process that failed for 
healthcare--is the wrong way to do business for this country.
  Again, the Democrats are open to a bipartisan discussion on tax 
reform, but it has to be truly bipartisan, not under reconciliation, 
and tax reform cannot be a cover story for delivering tax cuts to the 
wealthiest or result in a ballooning deficit and debt.