[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 179 (Friday, November 3, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H8448]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              REPUBLICAN VISION FOR TAX REFORM NOT PRETTY

  (Ms. ESHOO asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, Republicans unveiled their vision 
for tax reform, and it is not pretty.
  The proposal raises taxes on the middle class and showers the 
wealthiest 1 percent of our country with 80 percent of the benefits, at 
a total cost of $1.5 trillion charged to our Nation's credit card.
  The plan should be called ``Hurt the Middle Class Act.''
  It eliminates personal deductions for medical expenses; it eliminates 
the deductibility of interest paid on student loans; it eliminates the 
deductibility of State and local income taxes, again, raising taxes on 
the middle class; and to add insult to injury, the proposal eliminates 
the deduction for personal property losses from one natural disaster 
fire.
  Now, in California, we just experienced the worst fires in 
California's history. Over 14,000 people lost their homes, at a cost of 
at least $3 billion. The heck with them.
  When policies weaken the middle class, the backbone of our country, 
they weaken our entire country. The President said tax reform will be 
the best Christmas present of all, but, for the middle class, this bill 
will be one lump of coal.

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