[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 166 (Monday, October 16, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6385-S6386]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Tax Reform and the Budget

  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, today I want to talk to you about time 
and how little of it we have to accomplish two incredibly important 
legislative priorities, one that is national in scope and potentially 
historic in impact. The first of those priorities is tax reform. We 
have a target date on the calendar, and now the clock is ticking. We 
have to get to work.
  The budget resolution that we will consider this week sets November 
13 as our deadline for the Finance Committee to report a bill, and of 
course the distinguished chairman of the Finance Committee, Senator 
Hatch, is on the floor, and that is a commitment I know he takes very 
seriously.
  This bill, I hope, will broadly cut taxes on individuals and 
businesses alike and put more money in the pockets of working families 
across the country. What I like most about the plan I have seen so far 
is that it is bold. We are not trimming a little here and a tiny bit 
there. We are slashing rates, consolidating brackets, and eliminating 
pet credits and deductions. This is not JV tax reform. This is tax 
reform that is serious and based upon our commitment to get the economy 
growing again.
  Two weeks ago, the House approved its version of the resolution, and 
the Senate Budget Committee reported out its version. Now the Senate 
will consider the committee's resolution in the coming days. Why do we 
need that budget resolution? How is this all going to work?
  Well, these resolutions from each Chamber are the first step in 
passing pro-growth tax reform. They authorize the use of a tool called 
budget reconciliation. That means when the tax reform legislation is 
considered, it can't be stopped by less than a majority of the Senate. 
Of course, this isn't our first choice.
  I wish our colleagues across the aisle, our Democratic friends, would 
join us in bipartisan tax reform, but passing a budget resolution in 
the Senate is a must because this is something we can hold in reserve 
if our friends across the aisle simply refuse to participate in the 
process of pro-growth tax reform. It is a key procedural step because 
we have to fundamentally change the Tax Code before the end of the 
year.
  How well our economy does next year, how many jobs are created, and 
how much investment occurs here in the United States will depend 
largely upon our success in passing pro-growth tax reform this year. 
The clock is ticking, and we have to act with dispatch and with 
determination.

[[Page S6386]]

  As the President said last week in Pennsylvania, ``we want lower 
taxes, bigger paychecks, and more jobs for . . . American workers.'' He 
is absolutely right. Lower taxes, bigger paychecks, and more jobs are 
the things we all ought to want, and they are worth the fight.
  Under this administration we are already seeing results. The economy 
is bouncing back. Unemployment is at a 16-year low. Wages are rising 
and the stock market is soaring. The slumbering giant, which is the 
U.S. economy, is now slowly awakening. Our economy reached more than 
3.1 percent growth last quarter. Confidence, as the President stressed 
in Pennsylvania, is back when it comes to our economy and our future, 
but that confidence will not last long if we let this opportunity pass.
  We have to find ways to get companies to stay in America, to expand, 
and to hire in America. We have to find ways to take the money out of 
Washington's pocket and put it back into the pockets of those who 
earned the money in the first place--American families.
  We have to find ways to simplify the Tax Code, which, let's remember, 
hits families multiple times each year by taking their earnings, by 
stealing their time through compliance, and by trying their patience 
with complexity. Each tax return feels like three.
  I find it appalling that a majority of taxpayers are forced to pay 
someone else to do their taxes for them because they simply don't have 
the time or expertise to do it themselves.
  The unified framework released a few weeks ago will help. It calls 
for collapsing seven separate tax brackets down to three. That is what 
I call simplification. It expands the zero bracket so that if you are a 
married couple earning less than $24,000 a year, you will pay zero 
income taxes. It enhances the child tax credit. It repeals the death 
tax and special interest tax breaks, and it reduces the uncompetitive 
corporate tax rate to 20 percent and cuts tax rates for small 
businesses to the lowest level in more than 80 years. So let's make 
this happen before time runs out.