[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 182 (Wednesday, November 8, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H8604]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         PUT TAXES TO GOOD USE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, no one likes to pay taxes, but when our 
Founders dreamt of a nation, they knew that our success would rest on 
every shoulder. So it is not to make us just citizens of this great 
country, but stakeholders where everyone chips in, where everyone 
contributes, where everyone has skin in the game.
  It is the only way that a gutsy American experiment could work: if 
each of us is so committed to what this country stands for that we are 
willing to give a piece of what we earn to help it succeed. Of course, 
that willingness hinges on a system that would deliver for all of our 
people.
  We pay into a common good because we also reap from a common 
investment. We send our kids to public schools. We sleep safe at night 
under the protection of American defense. We wear down roads and 
bridges with commutes, with after-school pickups, with delivery runs, 
and family trips. So we do our part, however begrudgingly, however it 
might strap us or sting us, and all that we ask for in return is that 
what we give gets put to good use.
  The tax reform bill being offered by my Republican colleagues does 
not put that money to good use--not the money it takes from hardworking 
American families.

                              {time}  1045

  It does not ask families that are living paycheck to paycheck to fork 
over money that--make no mistake--they do not have so they can invest 
in affordable housing, so that we can help exhausted parents pay for 
quality childcare, and so that we can stop middle class kids from being 
priced out of higher education and ensure that families that are hit by 
catastrophic medical events don't lose their livelihood--not this bill.
  Instead, this bill asks Americans to scrape their bank accounts so 
that the Trump administration can turn around and use that money to 
give to the wealthiest among us and make them even wealthier; so that 
they can make tax cuts for corporations permanent but abandon American 
workers after a few years; so that they can multiply dividends enjoyed 
by the 10 percent of Americans who own the vast majority of our 
Nation's stocks while everyone else gets left behind; so that they can 
blow a hole in our Federal deficit that again--make no mistake--working 
and middle class families will be forced to fill with their bare hands 
for generations to come, for we all know that the moment that this bill 
passes, you are going to hear those calls for cuts to Medicaid, 
Medicare, and Social Security come roaring back from my Republican 
colleagues.
  So for these families, the money that they send to the American 
Government every year isn't just some meaningless check. It represents 
the late nights; the double shifts; the school plays and the teacher 
conferences missed; the bedtimes when you didn't make it home; the 
vacations you could not take; those endless, countless, thankless 
sacrifices that you make every single day so that you can take care of 
the people whom you love.
  You deserve a country that will make your contribution count and that 
will make that investment in your family, too. This bill doesn't even 
come close.

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