[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 182 (Wednesday, November 8, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S7079]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Tax Reform

  Mr. President, I want to address the work that the House Ways and 
Means Committee is currently engaged in and what we will be doing in 
the U.S. Senate to reform our overly complex, burdensome, and self-
destructive tax system. I think there is a lot of momentum gathering 
each day.
  Yesterday, Senator McConnell, the majority leader, commented on our 
once-in-a-generation opportunity to overhaul our Tax Code. To 
accomplish this goal, both the House and the Senate are moving forward 
on different proposals.
  This week, the House Ways and Means Committee completed its first 2 
days of discussing the House bill unveiled last week called the Tax 
Cuts and Jobs Act. At the same time, the Senate Finance Committee is 
continuing its work too. Chairman Hatch will continue to guide the 
committee through an open process, and members will have the chance to 
engage in productive discussions and debate. That will start once the 
chairman's mark or the base bill is released, hopefully by later this 
week. Perhaps as early as next week, we will begin the process in the 
Senate Finance Committee of marking up that bill, with Senators 
offering amendments and voting on it. Once both Houses of Congress have 
completed their work, my hope is that we can get this bill on the 
President's desk by Christmas.
  Some of our colleagues across the aisle, instead of contributing to 
the solution to this overly complex and self-destructive Tax Code, have 
been lobbing insults from their partisan bunkers, even though many of 
them have endorsed many aspects of the plans in years past. For 
example, early on, interestingly, there was criticism of our desire to 
make our global tax system more competitive so that more businesses 
will move their manufacturing facilities back to the United States and 
so that we can stamp more of their products ``Made in America,'' 
creating more jobs here. It is ironic because they were criticizing us 
for giving tax relief to businesses when people like President Barack 
Obama, back in 2011, had endorsed the very same concept, not to mention 
the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Wyden, and 
Senator Schumer. All of them have endorsed similar proposals, yet they 
were quick to criticize us for doing exactly the same things that they 
themselves had previously endorsed. Unfortunately, our Democratic 
friends are quick to criticize our plans not just because they disagree 
with them on the merits but simply because it is our proposal and they 
are not interested in working with us across party lines.
  This is really a shame and a lost opportunity. People are crying out 
for Democrats and Republicans to work together in the best interests of 
the country. Unfortunately, our Democratic friends are simply ignoring 
the urgency of the situation--the stagnation of American workers' wages 
and couples finding it harder to start families or, once they do, pay 
for a college education. As my friend the junior Senator from Florida, 
Senator Rubio, wrote a few days ago in the New York Times, it is more 
than time to reconcile ``our social contract to the realities that 
working families face.''
  The Tax Code has not been comprehensively overhauled since 1986. Now 
that some of us are trying to, the swamp is fighting back. It is 
important that we win this fight against the swamp--the special 
interest groups that try to come in and protect various special-
interest tax provisions that make our code unnecessarily complicated, 
forcing us to look for additional revenue from other sources because 
they want to protect theirs at the expense of the rest of the country.
  But the do-nothing approach of the recent past will not work. We 
can't let them stop us because hard-working families are waiting. They 
are waiting on us to quit stuffing our own pockets and start putting 
money back into theirs.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.