[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 173 (Thursday, October 26, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6827-S6828]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Tax Reform

  Ms. CAPITO. Mr. President, I rise to again highlight the importance 
of enacting tax reform. I listened to the Democratic leader's speech. I 
have heard that speech a thousand times--a thousand times how only 
wealthy Americans are going to benefit from anything the Republicans 
can come up with. Well, do you know what? Americans are smarter than 
that. Americans are smarter than that.
  I represent a State, West Virginians who have struggling economic 
situations. If I were to go out on the street in West Virginia, and as 
I talked to individuals there, and asked them: Would you like more of 
your hard-earned money at the end of the day and have a tax cut and tax 
relief, I can guarantee you 100 percent would say: Heck, yeah. I can 
spend my money better at home with my priorities than what you are 
doing in Washington, DC. So let's not let that argument rule the day. 
As I said, we are smarter than that.
  Let's talk about what this bill does. This is now my fourth, 
actually, in a series of something I believe in, which is tax reform 
for everybody in this country.
  My first speech described the benefits we will have in economic 
growth. Something that was not mentioned by the previous speaker is how 
we have been stagnated for so long. The economic growth will rise all 
boats. Every middle-class worker will benefit from this, and every 
small business will benefit from this. My second speech was about small 
businesses. Ninety-five percent of my State is small business. Last 
week, I highlighted the importance of passing the budget resolution to 
allow Congress to move forward, and we did that.
  Today, I want to talk about the importance of tax reform for middle-
class families and the impacts this bill will have on them, the very 
real impact. You know what, raising a family is very expensive today. A 
recent study from the Department of Agriculture found that middle-
income households will spend over $230,000 raising a child. It is 
staggering--staggering.

  The Federal Reserve found that almost half of American families are 
struggling right now to come up with $400 if they have an emergency 
expense. In West Virginia, where the median income is $41,000--hardly 
the wealthy--families are forced to make hard tradeoffs as they balance 
their checkbooks each month.
  Expenses are going up. Yet most Americans haven't received a raise in 
years. So we need to help working families, especially those living 
paycheck to paycheck, and this is one of the primary goals of our tax 
reform. We want middle-class, middle-earned-income

[[Page S6828]]

folks, hard-working folks to get more in their pocket to decide what 
they want to do with their money. I raised three children. I know just 
putting shoes on your children is an expensive proposition. Maybe you 
want to plan for a trip or save for college. Well, to pay for childcare 
and to save for college at the same time is almost impossible for our 
young families today.
  The framework we have set forward, I think, will help our families in 
many ways. First, it calls for a significant increase in the child tax 
credit. Yesterday, a number of my colleagues from the House and the 
Senate, joined with Ivanka Trump to highlight what an improved child 
tax credit would mean for working families. The tax reform proposal 
would allow families to take a higher per child credit, saving money on 
their taxes--money they have earned, money the families deserve to 
spend on their own, and money that could have significant impact to our 
families.
  We will also create a $500 tax credit for families who are caring for 
a nonchild dependent. Many Americans find themselves in the sandwich 
generation, where they are not only caring for their children, they are 
caring for their parents at the same time. This will help those 
families.
  Second, the proposal nearly doubles the standard deduction or the 
zero tax bracket. It raises it up to $24,000 for married taxpayers and 
up to $12,000 for single taxpayers.
  What kind of impact would this have on a State like mine? Well, 83 
percent of the taxpayers in West Virginia take the standard deduction. 
They are going to get a doubling in their standard deduction. That is 
more money for them to take home, to put the value of where they want 
to spend it with their own families. So four out of five West Virginia 
working families will benefit from that. That is an enormous savings, 
and even more taxpayers are likely to benefit, as the larger standard 
deduction means fewer people will itemize. We expect that figure to go 
up--from 83 percent up. It makes filing taxes simpler, and it makes it 
so our taxpayers can file on a single form without all of the extra 
forms, time, and money it takes.
  Finally, and most importantly, families will benefit from the 
economic growth that tax reform will bring to our country. This is 
probably the biggest impact that tax reform will have for working 
families. We will lower the corporate rate, yes, for companies, but we 
have to make our companies competitive across the globe. We are not. We 
are not competing. What kind of effect does that have? Fewer jobs and 
lower wages. Companies know that if they invest in their workforce, if 
they invest in the wages of their workforce, they are going to have a 
more productive workforce to produce products, to sell products, to 
enhance the quality of life of their communities.
  Many of these large corporations that are scattered around our 
country really do a lot of work in the community service parts of our 
country, whether it is helping with schools or whether it is helping 
with the baseball teams or sponsoring a robotics team. Why does that 
matter to working families? More than $2 trillion in profits earned by 
American companies is kept offshore because of the flaws in our current 
tax system--$2 trillion--and I think some of those estimates might be 
low. Shifting to a more fair and competitive system will bring those 
dollars back to the United States. Those companies want to invest in 
our country because they know we have the safest investments, we have 
the most technologically advanced and we have the best workforce, and 
this is great news for American families.
  The White House Council of Economic Advisers estimates that lowering 
that tax rate--that corporate tax rate--from 35 to 20 could increase 
the pay for the average American by about $4,000. At my small business 
roundtable, when I asked, what would you do with tax relief, the first 
thing she said was ``raise the wages of my seven employees.''
  So I think that this would be good news for working families, 
certainly good news for 50 percent of the West Virginia workers who 
work in small business. We need to make sure we work together, that we 
target our tax relief to middle-class families.
  I say to the Acting President pro tempore, you and I were at lunch 
the other day with the President. Priority No. 1, the President said 
that this tax cut must be targeted to the middle class, the working 
families in this country. That is what this bill has put forward: 
larger tax credit, larger standard deduction, unlocking the wages by 
lowering the competitive tax rate. Despite our hard work, too many 
middle-class families are falling behind, and we want to make sure that 
trend stops.
  So all of us, I think, can join together. This is going to go through 
committee. Both parties will have lots of opportunity to weigh in, and 
I look forward to looking into the eyes of the working men and women in 
my State and saying: Not only is help on the way, but help is here.
  Thank you so much.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Oregon.
  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I think it is going to be a very robust 
conversation about taxes. When we look into the eyes of working 
Americans, I hope my Republican colleagues are ready to answer this 
question, and that is, Why do they, the Republican Party, want to send 
$3.5 trillion of tax benefits to the top 1 percent? Why not spend the 
tax benefits on the middle class?
  Well, my colleagues keep coming to the floor and saying this is all 
about the middle class, but they don't mention that, in fact, every 
single major change is all about benefits for the richest 1 percent.
  Changing the dynasty tax to create a dynasty loophole, wow, that 
really doesn't benefit anybody in the working class. Lowering the top 
bracket while raising the bottom bracket, well, that doesn't help 
anybody in the working class. Providing a special passthrough for those 
who can put their business activities into limited liability 
corporations and have a special low rate, well, that certainly doesn't 
help anybody in the middle class.
  One provision after another, after another is targeted at the richest 
Americans, while coming and preaching help for the middle class. Oh, 
the American people will see right through this scheme. They are going 
to ask: Why is it you do so little for those at the bottom? In fact, 
you do nothing for those in the bottom third. Why is it you do so 
little for those in the middle class? In fact, many of them will see a 
tax increase. Why do you send the vast bulk of the benefits to the 
richest Americans when the richest Americans are already so much richer 
than anyone else?

  The debate we are going to have is important. For my colleagues who 
think they can fool the American people by talking about the middle 
class and instead are targeting the richest to be richer, I have news: 
It is not going to work.