[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 178 (Thursday, November 2, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6977-S6978]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Republican Tax Plan

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, later this morning, after months of 
hemming, hawing, and delaying, House Republicans will finally release 
some legislative details about their tax plan. It may not even include 
all the details. The on again, off again nature of these deliberations 
should concern every Member of both Chambers. That is not how you 
construct sound policy, especially with something as complicated and 
impactful as the Tax Code. Each decision has enormous ramifications. 
Last-minute changes and sloppy drafting could change the fate of entire 
industries. Rushing it through in a hasty manner could have disastrous 
consequences.
  We know why my colleagues are doing this. They don't want the public 
to know what is in this bill--increases on the middle class, breaks for 
the wealthy, big corporations getting a huge tax break, with no 
guarantee and very little likelihood that they will use the money to 
create jobs. That is why they don't want it to be public. It is not 
popular. On polls, it says: Do you support tax reform? They say yes. Do 
you support cutting the taxes on big corporations? They say, 
overwhelming, no. Do you support increasing taxes on the middle class? 
Overwhelming, they say no. Do you support decreasing taxes on the 
wealthy? They say, overwhelming, no. Those are the three tenets of this 
bill.
  I hope my Republican colleagues here in the Senate are watching what 
is going on in the House--the problems they are having, the secrecy 
they need--and realize how difficult and dangerous it is to rewrite the 
Tax Code by the seat of your pants. Looking at the Tax Code and real 
tax receipts after all the loopholes, the wealthy in our country pay 
far less in Federal taxes than they did historically while the middle 
class pays more. Corporate profits are at a record high, while average 
wages have been stagnant. Those statistics articulate a real problem 
with the basic fairness of our Tax Code that tax reform could underline 
and could fix. This plan doesn't.
  Instead, what we are seeing today is a plan that exacerbates the 
unfairness and inequality in our Tax Code. If the details of the 
Republican tax plan are anything like we have seen in the press--to 
repeal the estate tax, to create a huge new loophole for wealthy 
individuals in the form of a reduction in the pass-through rate, and 
lowering the big rates on corporations and the wealthy--this sure 
doesn't fit the bill of helping the middle class.
  Meanwhile, to pay for all the tax giveaways in their bill, the 
Republicans are likely to make it worse for the middle class--not just 
not help them but hurt them. It will slash State and local 
deductibility, which is a bedrock middle-class and upper middle class 
deduction, that would hurt so many middle-class taxpayers. Nearly one-
third of all taxpayers claim it from all over the country, the vast 
majority of whom make under $200,000 a year.
  Today, Republicans will crow about reaching a compromise on State and 
local, whereby they don't eliminate the deduction; they just reduce its 
value by about 70 percent. That means the bulk of the deduction will go 
away for so many middle class Americans. I would remind my Republican 
colleagues over in the House, particularly those from States like New 
York, New Jersey, California, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Virginia, and 
Colorado, that this compromise will not solve your problem. You will 
still pay the price with the voters.
  I have been in politics a long time. I know how this will affect 
people--this compromise. They will not look and say: Oh, it could have 
been worse. Maybe we would have lost the entire deduction. They will 
say: This year, I have the whole deduction, and next year, I have less 
than half of it. They will take it out on our Republican colleagues who 
vote for it, particularly from those States, and they are throughout 
the country--in well-to-do and upper middle class and middle-class 
suburban districts.
  So anyone who thinks this compromise is going to help them doesn't 
understand how politics works. It is not what it could have been. It is 
what it is and what it will be. Now it is a complete deduction. What it 
will be is that you will lose 70 percent of that deduction. No one is 
going to breathe a sigh of relief and say: I could have lost 100 
percent.
  Taxpayers will see that the Republicans have capped the amount of 
mortgage interest they can deduct from purchasing a new home now. That 
is the latest. Again, that hits right at the middle class. The mortgage 
deduction doesn't really affect the wealthiest. They have all their 
money in unearned income and capital gains, and all of that is what 
affects them the most. But the mortgage deduction is one of the hearts 
of the middle class. To play with it--to reduce it, to cap it, so they 
can do tax giveaways for the very rich--is not going to fly, I don't 
think--not in America, not in the America most of us know.
  Taxpayers in the big cities and small ones, in the exurbs and 
suburbs, who

[[Page S6978]]

commute to work, will also notice if they never receive the critical 
transit benefits they receive now. Thousands of dollars a year that 
help pay when you transit to work will be gone. Why? To help the 
wealthy.
  While some working Americans and middle-class taxpayers watch their 
taxes go up, they will read about how Republicans repealed the estate 
tax, which benefits only 5,500 families whose estates are worth over $5 
million. They will learn how, instead of keeping the estate tax or 
closing the egregious carried-interest loopholes, the Republicans 
reached into their pockets--the middle-class pockets--to pay for a big 
corporate tax break that has no guarantee and very little likelihood of 
producing jobs. They will learn that, while the reduction to the 
corporate tax rate is permanent, the increase in the child tax credit 
is temporary.
  Big, wealthy corporations count far more than kids in this bill. 
Corporations get permanent benefits, and families with kids get 
temporary and meager ones.
  The Tax Code is a reflection of fairness in our society. Do we want 
to be in a country where everyone pays their fair share, including big 
corporations and the very wealthy? I think so. I think most Americans 
agree with that. Yet right now, our Tax Code is slanted in favor of the 
rich and the powerful, and the Republican plan makes it only worse.
  The Republican tax plan would put two thumbs down on a scale already 
tipped toward the wealthy and powerful. It wouldn't create jobs. It 
wouldn't raise wages. The Tax Policy Center, as we know, estimated that 
80 percent of the benefits of the Republican plan go to the top 1 
percent--this new bill doesn't change that a bit--while nearly one-
third of middle-class Americans would see a tax increase; 80 percent of 
the benefits to the top of our country, 20 percent of the benefits to 
the other 99 percent. That is not a middle-class tax bill, as President 
Trump said it would be.
  Surely, we can do better. If our colleagues--whether it be in the 
House or Senate, our Republican colleagues who are trying to go it 
alone--can't pass this bill, we would welcome them. We would welcome an 
opportunity to sit down together and come up with a bill that really 
helps the middle class.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.