[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 176 (Tuesday, October 31, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6896-S6897]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Tax Reform

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, the House and the Senate are moving forward 
on a final draft of our tax reform bill, and I am excited about the 
progress we are making. We have one goal in mind with tax reform. It is 
to provide real relief to ordinary Americans--to the parents who are 
questioning whether they can afford the car they need to fit their 
growing family, to the single mom who is wondering how she is going to 
pay the bills this month, and to the middle-age couple worrying about a 
secure retirement. Everything in our tax reform framework is centered 
on providing relief to these Americans.
  To start with, we are going to provide them with a substantial amount 
of direct relief by lowering their tax rates and doubling the standard 
deduction so that they are keeping more of their paycheck every month.
  We are also going to significantly expand the child tax credit.
  And we are going to simplify and streamline the Tax Code so that it 
is easier for Americans to figure out what benefits they qualify for 
and so they don't have to spend a lot of time and money filing their 
taxes.
  All of these reforms mean more money in Americans' pockets. But we 
are not stopping there. We are also going to focus on reforming the 
business side of the Tax Code so that we can give Americans access to 
the kind of jobs, wages, and opportunities that will set them up for a 
secure future.
  In order for individual Americans to thrive economically, we need 
American businesses to thrive. Thriving businesses create jobs. They 
provide opportunities. They increase wages and invest in their workers, 
and they invest in new equipment, facilities, and product lines to 
innovate and expand their businesses.
  Right now, though, our Tax Code is not helping businesses thrive. 
Instead, it is strangling both large and small businesses with high tax 
rates.
  Our Nation has the highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized 
world--at least 10 percentage points higher than the majority of our 
international competitors. That is a problem for American workers 
because high tax rates leave businesses with less money to invest in 
their workers, to increase wages, or to create new jobs. This situation 
is compounded when you are an American business with international 
competitors that are paying a lot less in taxes than you are.
  It is no surprise that U.S. businesses struggling to stay competitive 
in the global economy don't have a lot of resources to devote to 
creating new jobs and increasing wages. A study from the White House 
Council of Economic Advisers estimates that reducing the corporate tax 
rate from 35 percent down to 20 percent would increase average 
household income by $4,000 annually.
  A second study shows a similar pay increase. Boston University 
professor and public finance expert Larry Kotlikoff found that lowering 
the corporate tax rate to 20 percent would increase household income by 
$3,500 per year on average. That is a significant pay raise for hard-
working Americans.
  In addition to lowering the corporate tax rate, there is another 
important thing we can do to increase the availability of jobs here at 
home; that is, reforming our outdated, worldwide tax system. Under our 
worldwide tax system, American companies pay U.S. taxes on the profit 
they make here at home, as well as on part of the profit they make 
abroad, once they bring that money home to the United States.
  The problem with this is that most other major world economies have 
shifted from a worldwide tax system to what is called a territorial tax 
system. In a territorial tax system, you pay taxes on the money you 
earn where you make it and only there. You aren't taxed again when you 
bring money back to your home country.
  Most American companies' foreign competitors have been operating 
under a territorial tax system for years. So they are paying a lot less 
in taxes on the money they make abroad than American companies are, and 
that

[[Page S6897]]

leaves American companies at a disadvantage.
  These foreign companies can underbid American companies for new 
business simply because they don't have to add as much in taxes into 
the price of their products or services. When foreign companies beat 
out American companies for new business, it is not just American 
companies that suffer. It is American workers. It is the American 
workers employed by these companies who live and work in literally 
every State in the Union, and it is the American workers who work for 
the small and medium-sized companies that form the supply chain here in 
the United States.
  For every American company that operates in countries around the 
world, there are countless companies here at home that supply the raw 
material for the products that are sold abroad--businesses that handle 
the packaging and shipping of those product and enterprises that supply 
support services like accounting, legal, and payroll services.
  America's global companies rely on a web of supporting businesses 
that spans the country, and when these global companies struggle, so do 
these supporting businesses and their workers.
  By transitioning from a worldwide tax system to a territorial tax 
system, we will not be just boosting wages, jobs, and opportunities for 
American workers employed by these global companies, but we will also 
be increasing wages, jobs, and opportunities for workers at the 
countless small and medium-sized businesses throughout our country that 
make up the supply chain for America's global companies.
  Finally, our tax plan will tackle the other key part of improving the 
playing field for American workers; that is, lowering the tax rates on 
small businesses.
  Small businesses are incredibly important for new job creation, but 
like big companies, right now small businesses are being strangled by 
high tax rates. That can make it difficult for small businesses to even 
survive, much less thrive and expand their operations. Lowering small 
business tax rates and making it easier for small businesses to recover 
their invested capital more quickly will free up the money that small 
business owners need to expand their businesses to add workers or to 
give employees a raise.
  Together, these aspects of tax reform are essential to reversing the 
lackluster economy of the last 8 years. Americans deserve better, and 
tax reform can be the key to putting this country back on the path to 
solid, sustainable economic growth.
  Mr. President, before I close today, I wish to switch gears for a 
minute and talk about judicial nominations. We have had the chance to 
confirm some excellent nominees so far this year, many of whom 
Democrats have ultimately supported. But despite this fact, Democrats 
have insisted on delaying the process of almost every single nomination 
to a district or circuit court. That is pretty much the definition of 
partisanship--when you obstruct nominees based not on any disagreement 
you have with them but simply because you don't like the person who is 
doing the nominating.
  Democrats' delays are ultimately pretty pointless. We are not going 
to stop confirming nominees just because Democrats are dragging out the 
process, but these delays are a disservice to the American people. 
There are a lot of important issues that the Senate needs to be 
debating, from spending bills to tax reform, and the time that we waste 
on pointless partisan exercises is time taken from those important 
issues.
  While Democrats' partisanship is frustrating, there is a much more 
serious issue that has come up during these judicial confirmations; 
that is, the anti-religious sentiment displayed by some of my 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle during the hearing on 
judicial nominee Amy Barrett's nomination, which we will be voting on 
this week.
  Ms. Barrett's qualifications are well known. The American Bar 
Association, which rates judicial nominees, has given her its highest 
rating of ``well qualified.''
  As my colleague the minority leader has said, the American Bar 
Association's evaluation is the ``gold standard by which judicial 
candidates are judged.''
  Despite her judicial qualifications, it became clear in the hearing 
on her nomination that some of my colleagues think she should be 
disqualified because she is a practicing Catholic. That is right. 
Apparently, practicing your religion is now grounds for declaring you 
unfit to be a judge.
  Here is what the Constitution has to say about that. This is from 
article VI: ``No religious Test shall ever be required as a 
Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.''
  Let me repeat that: ``No religious Test shall ever be required as a 
Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.''
  In other words, in the United States, you can't be disqualified from 
serving as a judge because you are a believing Catholic or a believing 
member of any faith. The only qualification the Constitution imposes is 
a commitment to uphold the Constitution.
  Yet the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate apparently thought it 
was appropriate to ask Ms. Barrett if she was a practicing member of 
her religion, with the implication that if she was, it might jeopardize 
her fitness for being a judge.
  Democrats' questioning is not going to stop Ms. Barrett's nomination, 
but it is simply disturbing, nonetheless. It is a scary thing when 
leaders of a major political party imply that there is no role for 
religious people in public life.
  I don't need to tell anybody that that is contrary to everything our 
Founders stood for. The right to be able to practice religion freely--
yes, in public, too--was so fundamental to the Founders' understanding 
of liberty that they made it the very first freedom mentioned in the 
Bill of Rights.
  People of faith have made incalculable contributions to our country, 
and faith has driven some of the greatest movements in American 
history, from the abolitionist movement to the civil rights movement.
  I hope the Democratic Party doesn't move further down the path of 
excluding religious people from public life. If they ever succeed in 
excluding people of faith from government, they will have destroyed one 
of the freedoms on which our country rests.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for an 
appropriate amount of time to finish my remarks.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.