[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 158 (Tuesday, October 3, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6269-S6270]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Tax Reform

  Mr. President, returning to the Republican tax plan, over the 
weekend, we heard some pretty absurd claims from Republican legislators 
and Cabinet officials about the tax plan. The President and his top 
advisers are selling this as a middle-class miracle, but every 
independent analyst is saying that the Republican plan focuses on the 
rich to the exclusion of the middle class.
  The GOP tax plan lowers the top rate from 39.6 to 35 percent and 
repeals the estate tax, which affects only the top two-tenths of 1 
percent of the estates in this country, or any estate over $11 million. 
That is not the middle class. It lowers the rate on passthrough 
entities, creating a huge loophole that would allow wealthy hedge fund 
managers, law firms, and lobbyists to pay a rate that is a lot lower. 
According to the Tax Policy Center, the top one-tenth of 1 percent 
would reap 80 percent of the benefits of the GOP plan. The top 0.1 
percent, or folks who make more than $5 million a year, would get a 
break of a million dollars a year. How many Americans believe that 
people who make over $5 million a year should get a $1 million tax 
break? That is what is in the bill right now.
  They are saying that maybe it will change, but why did they put out 
such a shoddy product to begin with? Why didn't they wait and put in 
more details than what is there now? It is not a middle-class tax cut 
by any stretch of the imagination. Those who put together this bill, 
the hard rightwing of the Republican Party, really aren't interested in 
middle-class tax cuts. They are interested in tax cuts for the rich and 
scraps for everyone else. Nothing makes this clearer than their budget 
resolution, and every day this plan comes with a surprise.
  Here is the surprise today, and it is amazing. The Republican budget 
resolution calls for a $450 billion cut in Medicare. Folks, this tax 
bill cuts your Medicare. In the budget bill that outlines the tax bill 
that we are doing this week, the plan calls for a $473 billion cut in 
Medicare and more than $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid.
  If you are an older American, you are saying: Maybe this tax bill 
will not affect me.
  It sure will. It sure will because, amazingly, to pay for these tax 
cuts for the wealthiest of Americans--the most powerful of Americans--
they cut your Medicare by over $450 billion and cut Medicaid by $1 
trillion.
  Haven't our Republican colleagues learned? When they tried to do a 
similar thing in healthcare--to cut healthcare so they could save money 
and cut taxes on the very wealthy--they had to abandon it. This is 
going to meet a similar problem. It is going to meet the opprobrium of 
the American people--$1.5 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthiest of 
Americans--and the budget tees up even more cuts to Medicare. If the 
GOP tax plan were to pass, another provision known as statutory pay-go 
would offset the deficit increase automatically with cuts to Medicare 
and many other programs that support our Nation's economy. So not only 
does this bill favor the rich, the very wealthy, but to help finance 
those tax cuts for the wealthy, they are cutting Medicare by one-half 
trillion dollars--close to one-half trillion dollars--and they are 
cutting Medicaid by $1 trillion.
  So this is just like the Republicans' first healthcare bill, but in 
reverse. In the first TrumpCare bill, the Republicans proposed cutting 
back on healthcare to sneak through tax breaks for the rich. Now they 
are proposing massive tax cuts to the rich to sneak through cuts to 
healthcare.
  Wait till America finds out about this bill. It is going to get the 
same cold, horrified reception that the healthcare bill did, and it 
will not pass. The American people will not be fooled. They have seen 
this movie before. The top 1 percent of corporations would win, and 
millions of seniors, the disabled, and working-class Americans would 
lose, and lose a lot.
  The rich are doing great. They don't need a tax break. To compound 
the injury, to say we are going to pay for their big tax break by 
cutting Medicare and Medicaid, that ain't going to fly. Don't even try 
it.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.

[[Page S6270]]

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.