[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 175 (Monday, October 30, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S6863]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          REPUBLICAN TAX PLAN

  Mr. SCHUMER. Finally, Mr. President, on taxes, the Republicans have 
promised to release the details of their tax plan this week. After 
months of talking about a plan with very few specifics, we will finally 
get to see how the Republican leadership plans to rewrite the Tax Code. 
From all indications so far, the details of the Republican tax plan 
will be cheered by those in the country clubs and corporate boardrooms. 
Working Americans, on the other hand, might not have very much to cheer 
about.
  The top 1 percent, law firms, hedge fund managers, can celebrate a 
lower top rate and an enormous new tax loophole in the form of lower 
rates on passthroughs. People who will most take advantage of these 
passthroughs are not small businesses. They can't afford all the 
lawyers and stuff. It will be the biggest, the most powerful, the 
richest, the wealthiest 5,200 families in America--those with estates 
over $5 million--who can celebrate the absurd repeal of the estate tax. 
Corporate America can celebrate hundreds of billions in tax cuts, which 
large corporations usually spend, not on new jobs--it is not what the 
history shows--but on CEO bonuses, stock buybacks, dividends. So while 
the wealthy and well-off will be busy celebrating the new tax breaks 
they might get if the Republican plan passes, working America will be 
looking over their shoulder at some real tax hikes.
  Republicans are debating how to eliminate or reduce State and local 
deductibility--a bedrock, middle-class deduction claimed by nearly one-
third of all taxpayers, the vast majority of whom make less than 
$200,000 a year. The Republican framework says they are going to 
eliminate the deduction, which totals tens of thousands of dollars a 
year for many working families. That is why removing State and local 
raises $1.3 trillion in revenue, and the GOP plans to spend that tax 
increase they are getting from the middle class on tax cuts for big 
corporations and the superrich. To be clear, it is a $1.3 trillion hike 
on middle-class families.
  Now, there is a compromise on State and local deductibility that has 
been floated in the press. It is hardly much better. The Republicans 
are talking about continuing to allow State and local deductibility for 
property taxes but not income and sales taxes. That compromise raises 
$900 billion, meaning that Republicans, even with the compromise, are 
instituting nearly a trillion-dollar tax hike on working families to 
pay for breaks at the very top.
  No matter how they construct this compromise, Republicans are still 
socking it to the middle class and the upper middle class but this time 
picking winners and losers. Sales taxes hit consumers the hardest. 
Ending the State and local deductibility for sales tax would fall on 
the backs of working-class and middle-class Americans, particularly in 
States like Tennessee, Florida, and Nevada, which don't have an income 
tax but have a large sales tax. States like Chairman Brady's, Texas, on 
the other hand, which have very high property taxes, would be much 
better off.
  Worse still, the tax hike from this so-called SALT compromise would 
heap pressure on State and local governments across the country to make 
the agonizing decision about whether to raise taxes or cut spending for 
services--education, law enforcement, hospitals, highway building--on 
which their middle-class constituents rely.
  A warning to my Republican colleagues from high sales tax States like 
Tennessee, Florida, and Nevada and high-income States--a lot of 
Republican Congressmen in those States of New York, New Jersey, 
California, Minnesota, Virginia, Colorado--that this State and local 
compromise will not solve your problem. The compromise does not solve 
your problem. It will still hit your constituents right in their 
wallets.
  Now, another debate on the other side of the aisle is how to cap 
Americans' pretax contributions to their 401(k) plans. Can you believe 
it? Here in America, where we want to help the middle class save, where 
we want to encourage savings, we are making it harder? In layman's 
terms, here is what our Republican colleagues want to do. They want to 
tax your 401(k)s. I can't believe my Republican friends are even 
considering such a bad idea. We have had bipartisan support on 
expanding the ability to retire, particularly now that so many 
companies are no longer giving pensions.
  Giving Americans the ability to put away pretax dollars for their 
retirement is one of the few provisions in our Tax Code that encourage 
early savings. Capping the amount Americans can contribute pretax or, 
in other words, turning every 401(k) into something more like a Roth 
IRA, will discourage Americans from saving and handicap their ability 
to retire with dignity and security now that defined benefit plans are 
declining.
  For years, we Democrats--often joined by Republican colleagues--have 
fought for policies that would make 401(k)s more attractive, provide 
greater benefits--in other words, the exact opposite of what the 
Republican leadership is considering. We have put forward proposals on 
autoenrollment, increasing incentives for businesses that enroll 
workers and match contributions and letting small businesses pool 
together to offer plans. Each of these ideas would encourage more 
Americans, particularly younger families who have great burdens on 
them, to start saving early for retirement, which everyone agrees is 
essential to building up enough of a nest egg to live out your golden 
years in some degree of dignity and comfort.
  The Republican proposals say to every future retiree that they don't 
care about your ability to retire. They just want to get your tax 
revenue into Federal coffers as soon as possible so they can give a tax 
break to the very wealthy--that top 1 percent.
  The contrast could not be clearer. Democrats want to expand and 
enhance 401(k) plans, not cut them and cap them. That is a better deal 
for American workers and for middle-class families.
  So instead of this one-party, secretive approach, Democrats and 
Republicans should be meeting with each other, talking about tax reform 
in a bipartisan setting to forge a bipartisan proposal. That is what 
committees were designed to do. That is what regular order was designed 
to produce. Just like on healthcare, our Republican friends are 
straining the legislative traditions of this body and risking their 
ability to govern effectively--we saw what happened with healthcare--by 
going at it alone.
  The American people expect more of their elected officials than that 
of an assembly line of partisan legislation, crafted in secret, 
considered with such haste. I know why our Republican colleagues want 
to rush this through. They know the more the American people learn 
about this bill, the more it favors the wealthy over the middle class, 
the less they will like it. Just like with healthcare, once this bill 
is unveiled--now only 30 percent of the American people support it and 
even fewer will. Maybe our Republican colleagues will see the light and 
work with us to get good tax reform that focuses on the middle class, 
not on the top 1 percent.
  I yield the floor.

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