[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.