[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 183 (Thursday, November 9, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7140-S7145]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, today, as chairman of the Senate Finance 
Committee, I am releasing a chairman's mark for the Senate version of 
the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, legislation that is the culmination of years 
of effort to reform our Nation's Tax Code. We have been at this a long 
time, and today marks a significant step forward in this effort. While 
we refer to this document as a chairman's mark, it has really been a 
group effort, with significant input from all the Republican members of 
the Finance Committee and great work from all of our staff. I want to 
thank everyone involved for their hard work, as well as their feedback, 
perspectives, advice, and ideas.
  The last time Congress enacted a comprehensive overhaul of the Tax 
Code back in 1986, President Reagan famously noted that the American 
people would finally have a tax code they could be proud of. And in 
1986, that was likely true. At that time, updates to the Tax Code were 
necessary to keep pace with the technological and geopolitical changes 
our Nation had been facing. That sounds pretty familiar, Mr. President. 
It is, after all, what we have been saying for the last several years. 
The world of 1986 was vastly different from the world we live in today. 
Advances in the past three decades have been monumental. Yet our Tax 
Code has not advanced, and it is failing us.
  The American people have dealt with years of stagnating wages, 
sluggishness in labor markets, and weak growth in the economy. 
Businesses are fleeing our country to find more favorable conditions in 
other countries. We have been working for years to address these issues 
and to meet the needs of the 21st-century global economy.
  Fortunately, we now find ourselves in a position to make good on all 
of these years of hard work. A big part of that is the fact that our 
current President is fully engaged on tax reform, unlike his most 
recent predecessor. So we have been focused this year on providing 
middle-class tax relief, reforming the business tax system, and fixing 
our obscenely outdated international tax regime.
  The mark we are releasing today will accomplish all of these goals 
and more. It will reduce individual rates across the board and direct 
substantial relief to low- and middle-income families and workers. It 
will bring down corporate tax rates--a goal long shared by Republicans 
and Democrats--and provide businesses with new opportunities for growth 
and expansion. It will modernize our international tax system, bringing 
to an end our worldwide tax regime, a relic that should have been 
retired many years ago. We have been laser-focused on reducing taxes 
for the middle class, and that is exactly what this bill will do.
  Combined, these changes to our broken Tax Code in the chairman's mark 
will give hard-working taxpayers across the country bigger paychecks 
and more opportunities. They will grow our economy, raising wages and 
improving the standard of living for all Americans. They will once 
again make America the best place in the world to create, grow, and 
keep a business--where we create more jobs and sustain a vibrant, 
growing economy.
  I will have more to say on the specifics of the mark in the coming 
days. For now, I just want to give my colleagues on the Finance 
Committee an opportunity to share their thoughts on the steps we are 
taking today.
  Before we get to that, I do want to acknowledge the elephants in the 
room. Only Republicans will be standing up today to speak in favor of 
the mark, and I expect we will hear some negative comments from our 
friends on the other side of the aisle soon enough. On that point, I 
will just reiterate what I have said many times in the past: Our desire 
from the outset of this endeavor has been to have Democrats join us in 
this effort.
  I have personally invited my colleagues to come to the table, to 
share their views, and to work with us in good faith. Yet I expect that 
we will hear a lot about supposed process fouls in the coming days. Let 
me make it clear to anyone listening: As chairman of the Senate's tax 
writing committee, I haven't turned anyone away from the process. I 
haven't refused to listen to anyone's ideas or suggestions. And I 
continue to say, with conviction, that I am still willing to have them 
onboard and hope they will be willing to get onboard and join us in 
this effort.
  A critical objective in the effort is to provide relief and support 
to the large swath of Americans in the middle class who have been left 
behind, without economic gain or opportunities for growth.
  Our tax reform efforts--represented in the chairman's mark put 
forward today--show that we are listening to those calling out for 
relief. We have a historic opportunity to help, and that opportunity 
should not be squandered by anyone on either side of the aisle for 
cheap political points.
  With that, I am grateful to be a member of this body and grateful to 
be chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which is a very powerful 
and hard-working committee--both Republicans and Democrats. I am 
grateful to make these remarks today.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, the last time Congress really did the 
big job that is before us right now was 1986. It did quite a bit to 
modernize the Tax Code. That was 30 years ago. In the generation since, 
the Tax Code has grown out of control. Everybody knows that. It has 
been a dream come true for accountants and lobbyists who make their 
living from certain provisions of that Tax Code. But for the American 
taxpayer, the gigantic Tax Code is not a dream, but a nightmare for 
most Americans.

[[Page S7141]]

  This has helped the powerful and the well connected, but it has hurt 
American workers. It has hurt American industry, and it hurts America's 
ability to compete with the rest of the world.
  The bill unveiled today takes a giant step forward to make our Tax 
Code simpler, fairer, and more competitive. It catches us up with our 
major trading partners, who have been lowering business tax rates while 
we stood still, and it keeps us uncompetitive. It will give us an 
opportunity to export more when we are competitive in the global 
economy.
  This bill will also help bring back jobs and create new ones. It will 
boost American wages by promoting economic growth and incentivizing 
investment.
  The centerpiece of the legislation is where it ought to be--in the 
center of our population, middle-class America, so it has middle-class 
tax cuts. The average middle-class family of four would see a tax cut 
of more than $1,400 and an increase in the child tax credit of $650--
above the $1,000 that is already there per child, which would mean real 
help for working parents.
  Nearly doubling the standard deduction means that many lower income 
Americans will be removed from the tax rolls completely, and the tax 
filing season will be much simpler for millions more.
  Small businesses will also see significant tax relief from the rate 
reduction on the individual side but also from an innovative, new small 
business income tax deduction. Two-thirds of the jobs in this country 
are created by those very same small businesses, and we ought to give 
them some better equity with big C corporations.
  It will provide much needed tax relief to nearly all small 
businesses, down to the smallest family-owned corner store and family 
farmer.
  Our bill recognizes the importance of small businesses in our 
economy. After all, as I just said, they are responsible for a majority 
of those new jobs. The tax savings they receive could be spent on a new 
hire. It could be spent on giving raises to employees in those same 
small businesses. It could be invested in a growing company. All of 
this adds up to Americans seeing more ``Now Hiring'' signs throughout 
our country.
  Landmark tax relief during the Kennedy and Reagan administrations 
grew wages, created jobs, and made the United States more competitive, 
so there is enough history behind what we are trying to do to know that 
it will accomplish the goals we are trying to accomplish.
  Today, Congress has a golden opportunity to do, again, what was done 
in Kennedy and the Reagan years, and it has not been done for 30 years: 
tax cuts, tax simplification, and tax reform.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Carolina.
  Mr. SCOTT. Mr. President, today is a good day. We have both the House 
and the Senate working on tax reform that will have a positive impact 
for everyday, hard-working Americans. This is truly a good day.
  So often when you hear us talk about tax reform, it sounds like a lot 
of numbers. I am not sure how excited or enamored people get with 
numbers, but I am the kind of guy who believes tax reform is not about 
numbers. Tax reform is about everyday Americans being able to keep more 
of their hard-earned money.
  Tax reform is about families like the one I grew up in--single-parent 
households, working paycheck to paycheck, year in and year out, praying 
and hoping for something good to happen. Today is good news for those 
single moms and single dads out there.
  It is also good news for the working-class families--dual income--
making around $75,000 a year, working every day, trying to make sure 
they have a little left over for dinner out.
  We want to say to those folks who haven't really had a raise in a 
decade: We hear you. We feel your pain. We want to deliver to your 
American family the opportunity to see more money in each paycheck. 
This is good.
  And for folks who are looking to start businesses, we have a 
Christmas surprise for you too.
  We have lowered taxes on the average family about $1,500 a year--$100 
or so a month. Here is what that means. For a family where you are in a 
single-parent household, you bring home about $450 a paycheck. That 
could easily become an extra 10 percent per paycheck. That is a lot of 
money to a single-parent household.
  We have also expanded the child tax credit to make sure that those 
folks in the middle-income brackets are able to keep more of that hard-
earned money. If there is a focus on our tax reform package, it is to 
make sure that middle America--hard-working income earners--have a 
chance to see more money materialize in their paychecks.
  We have also simplified the Tax Code. People say: Well, how did you 
do that? There are seven brackets. I understand. It is simple. 
Simplification means you do not have to itemize. Said differently, 9 
out of 10 taxpayers will be able to use the expanded standard deduction 
to figure out their tax burden, as opposed to going item by item by 
item and understanding whether you can withdraw it or subtract it from 
your income.
  I had the great pleasure to be a small business owner before entering 
Congress. Many small business owners represent the backbone of our 
economy. Most jobs created in the future will be created by a small 
business owner. We are going to lower your taxes so that you can hire 
more people and make long-term investments in building the greatest 
economy this country has known in more than a generation.
  This is a good day, and we have good news.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I agree with the Senator from South 
Carolina. This is, indeed, a good day for the families who will benefit 
from this additional money in their paycheck, from the increased 
standard of living they will enjoy.
  For those of us who want to see businesses come back home from 
abroad, they fled this country because we have the highest corporate 
tax rate in the world. When we say we want to reform that broken 
corporate tax rate and to bring those businesses and that money home, 
we join our colleagues--ranging from the Democratic leader, Senator 
Schumer, to Barack Obama in 2011, in a joint session of the U.S. 
Congress--in advocating for bringing that business rate down so that 
businesses will stay in America. They will hire Americans, and they 
will improve wages for all working families.
  I am proud to join my fellow Finance Committee colleagues on the 
floor today to support our version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which 
was just released a few moments ago.
  I congratulate Chairman Hatch for his leadership, but I am 
extraordinarily impressed with all the members of the Finance Committee 
who worked so hard together to try to get us to where we are today. We 
plan for lower rates.
  As you heard, we increased the standard deduction, we expanded the 
child tax credit, and we reformed the Tax Code so that we can give 
Americans access to more jobs and higher wages.
  Our Democratic colleagues have said they want tax reform too. I 
mentioned Barack Obama and Chuck Schumer, our colleague from New York, 
who repeatedly said that we should lower the corporate rate so 
businesses will come home, hire Americans, and help our economy grow 
here. So we are all in agreement on that on a bipartisan basis, and 
there is room for further agreement.

  I agree with the chairman of the Finance Committee, Senator Hatch. We 
invite our Democratic colleagues to come together and join us, 
particularly starting on the Finance Committee on Monday.
  If what we want is more, better paying jobs--and we do--then we have 
to focus on lowering rates on all the job creators, including small 
businesses, as you have heard. The framework we have developed was 
designed to cut taxes for middle-class families, not millionaires. It 
is to help small businesses grow and create more jobs. It is to provide 
relief for hard-working families by increasing the standard deduction, 
as our colleague from South Carolina pointed out. One out of ten 
taxpayers will now have to itemize deductions in order to take full 
advantage of the law to reduce their tax burden. So it will be simpler, 
easier to comply with, and lower their tax rate, while enhancing the 
child tax credit. These reforms will make the 1,000-page Tax Code 
easier to understand and comply with. Our efforts will simplify what 
are

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now pages upon pages of language that only tax lawyers and lobbyists 
understand.
  I look forward to continuing the important discussions when the 
Senate Finance Committee marks up and amends this proposal starting 
Monday.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Dakota.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, it is a good day here in the Senate because 
today we released our tax reform legislation, and soon we hope to have 
a final bill on the President's desk.
  When you first think about coming to Washington to serve, you dream 
about fixing big problems and making a real difference in people's 
lives. Well, today we get to make a big difference.
  When I look at the Chamber, I hearken back to 1986, which was the 
last time tax reform was actually passed through the Senate and signed 
into law by the President. Senator Hatch, the chairman of our 
committee, was a Member of the Senate at that time; Senator McConnell, 
the Republican leader; Senator Grassley, whom you just heard from--they 
were all here to vote on that. I was here as a young staffer. At that 
time, I didn't have kids of my own, and today I am a grandfather. So a 
lot of time has passed, and tax reform is long overdue.
  The whole point of this exercise is to give hope to future 
generations of Americans, to give them a better opportunity at a better 
life, to improve their standard of living and their quality of life. In 
order for that to happen, we need to be taking the steps here and 
putting policies in place that will create the conditions that are 
favorable to economic growth and to the creation of better paying jobs 
and higher wages.
  Today we get to bring relief to the parents who are wondering if they 
will be able to afford a new car that they need to fit their growing 
family. Today we get to bring relief to the single mom who is wondering 
how she is going to pay the rent next month. As our colleague from 
South Carolina talked about, those parents and families who are 
literally living paycheck to paycheck. Today, we get to bring relief to 
the middle-aged couple worrying about a secure retirement, to the small 
business owner who doesn't know how he will meet his tax bill and still 
make his mortgage payment, to the family farmer who is worried that he 
will not be able to pass down his farm to his daughter.
  The comprehensive tax reform legislation we have introduced today 
will provide immediate, direct relief to hard-working Americans. It 
will immediately increase their take-home pay. It will immediately 
simplify the Tax Code so that it is easier for Americans to figure out 
what benefits they qualify for so they don't have to spend a lot of 
time and money filing their taxes.
  That is really just the beginning. Our bill is also going to reform 
the business side of the Tax Code to give Americans access to the jobs, 
the wages, and the opportunities that will set them up for a secure 
future. We are going to make it easier for small businesses to raise 
wages and to hire new workers. We are going to end the outdated tax 
framework that is driving American companies to keep jobs and profits 
overseas, and we are going to make it easier for companies to invest in 
American jobs and American workers.
  It has been a rough few years for our economy and for the American 
people. A lot of Americans haven't had a pay raise literally in almost 
a decade. But with this tax reform legislation, we can ensure that it 
doesn't stay that way.
  The American people deserve a tax code that works for them and not 
against them, that grows their paychecks instead of shrinking them, 
that expands their opportunities instead of eliminating them, and that 
is exactly what we are going to give them starting today.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Georgia.
  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, today is America's lucky day. And we all 
know what the definition of ``luck'' is--luck is when opportunity meets 
preparation. We are very lucky as a country and we are very lucky as a 
Senate that our majority leader, Mitch McConnell, was where he is and 
is where he is at the time he is. It was his vision a few years ago 
that the tax issue was going to emerge as the central issue in the 
growth and development of our country and that unless we met the 
challenges of our Tax Code, opened up opportunity for our public, and 
expanded opportunity for our businesses, the American people could 
succumb to a high-tax system without productivity.
  We also got lucky because Senator McConnell picked a man to be 
chairman of this committee--Orrin Hatch--who brought years of 
experience in the U.S. Senate and the compassion that Orrin Hatch has 
as a Mormon and as an American to a tax code that is by no means 
simple--it was always complex--to make it simpler and fairer, pro-
family and pro-jobs.
  Let me tell you something. There are a lot of disappointed people 
overseas right now because those who have been picking our pockets by 
inverting American corporations to foreign systems because their taxes 
were lower than ours are out of luck. Now those people are going to be 
incentivized to come to America, to make investments in our country, to 
expand opportunities and jobs in our country. No longer will companies 
want to leave America; companies will invest and be more American. That 
is fantastic, and that is why this is a pro-jobs tax bill. It is going 
to create a lot of opportunity, and opportunity is what Americans want 
and what Americans need.
  For the average American family--and let me talk about my family for 
a second. I think I am pretty average. My wife and I are fortunate. We 
have three great children and nine great grandchildren. I was lucky 
enough to have worked in a small LLC--limited liability partnership--
real estate brokerage company, mom-and-pop brokerage company. My wife 
taught in public schools. Our children went to the University of 
Georgia and to the public schools of our community. We saved for their 
education. We did everything we could to invest in hope for them in the 
future, and today they are all gainfully employed. They are all happy, 
but they are all struggling, as everybody else is, with a burdensome 
tax system, with less opportunity than we would like for them to have. 
By simplifying the tax system, by making it fairer, as we have done 
here, we have given more opportunity to my grandchildren, my children, 
and more opportunity to America.
  Lastly, I want to make this point: There are only two ways to raise 
taxes or raise revenue. One is to charge more. That means you raise 
somebody's taxes. The other way to do it is to create opportunity. So 
people create companies and jobs because the opportunity is there. When 
you create opportunity and when jobs are created, revenues increase. 
When people do better in their jobs, their incomes go up. When 
companies have people who do better in their jobs, they expand. When 
they expand, they produce more revenue that becomes taxable. So we 
raise our revenue not by lowering expectations but by raising 
opportunity for our people and for our children.
  We are very lucky as Americans today. I am very lucky to be in this 
U.S. Senate today. We are lucky to have had leaders in place at a time 
that was right to address our country's biggest challenge and do it the 
right way.
  When I was in the Georgia Legislature, I sat next to an oldtime 
rural-hat politician who ran the Ways and Means Committee of the 
Georgia Legislature. I will never forget that one day he and I were 
sitting side by side as we were listening to a gentleman make a speech 
in the well. The gentleman in the well paused a minute to try to make a 
point, and he said: Ladies and gentlemen, let me tax your memory. And 
my old friend, the rural-hat politician, said: Damn, I wish I had 
thought of that.
  That is the way we have done taxes in this country for a long time--
just taxed people's memory, tried to look for an opportunity to tax 
something for us. What we are doing here is we are creating 
opportunity. We are raising revenue through prosperity. Americans will 
raise revenue for their pockets first before the country gets the 
revenue second.
  So it is our lucky day--lucky to have good leaders, lucky to live in 
the greatest country on the face of this Earth. And if we do our job--
if we pass this bill before the end of this year and

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change the Tax Code of the United States of America to a fairer, pro-
jobs, pro-family tax code--then we will have made our contribution to 
history at a time when it was our opportunity. I hope it will never be 
said that we let our country down when that opportunity was available 
to us.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. TOOMEY. Mr. President, I want to echo the message of the Senator 
from Georgia. This is a terrific opportunity. This is a very big day. 
It is a big step forward on our path to restoring the economic growth 
that we have been waiting for all this time. I am very excited about 
this step forward and the remainder of the process to get this done, to 
get this bill signed into law.
  Why do we need this? We have just lived through the weakest recovery 
in American history--feeble growth, stagnant wages, and a widening gap 
between the wealthy and the poor. That is what has been happening for 
years.
  Some people say: Well, that is just the way it is. You just need to 
get used to it. That is the new normal. That is what America is about 
now.
  That is complete nonsense. There is nothing inevitable about the 
American economy being weak and denying opportunity for the people we 
represent. It is a direct result of bad policy, failed policy that 
prevented us from having the recovery we would normally have after a 
recession.
  What was that policy? Well, we saw it. It is very clear. It is not a 
matter of opinion, it is a matter of fact that productivity growth in 
America collapsed. It is a matter of fact that investment in the kinds 
of new plants and equipment that allow for productivity to grow 
collapsed. It is a fact that new business startups just dried up. 
People weren't able and willing to do it.
  There is no mystery about why our economy was so weak for so many 
years. We had imposed conditions that made it impossible to have the 
kind of growth that is normal. Meanwhile, what was happening in the 
rest of the world? The rest of the world was systematically making 
their tax codes more competitive. The countries that we compete with 
around the world, in Europe and Asia, were lowering the rates they 
apply to business income, they were simplifying their codes, and they 
were moving to international systems that made it more conducive for 
them to generate investment into their countries, while we did nothing 
except let our Tax Code ossify. That is what has been happening these 
last many years.
  What I am excited about is that this bill fixes exactly what is 
broken. This bill goes to exactly where the problem is and begins to 
turn this around. How do we do that? One of the things we do--a 
hallmark of this bill--is we are going to lower the cost of investing 
in the new plants and equipment that will allow American workers to 
become more productive. More productive workers get paid more in wages; 
that is just a fact. That is what is going to happen as a result of 
this bill.
  Another thing we do in this bill is we get away from this terrible 
policy we have that is resulting in foreign companies buying up 
American companies. The way we treat income earned overseas is a 
disaster, and we are the only country in the world that does it.
  I think you could make a case that today the United States has what 
might very well be the least attractive tax regime in the modern world, 
in the industrialized world. What is really exciting about this is that 
we are going to move from this system to what just might be the best 
tax system in the industrialized world. Think about the result that is 
going to have. I think the result is going to be breathtaking--new 
investment, new businesses being launched, existing businesses growing.
  Take foreign direct investment alone. If you think about it, we have 
a global economy. Capital can move around the world with literally the 
click of a mouse, and people make investment decisions based on the 
climate of the place in which they are thinking about investing. When 
we have the worst tax regime in the world, who really wants to invest 
here? When we have the best, how are we not going to attract investment 
from all around the world, including very much in the United States?
  So the changes we are making are exactly the right changes for this 
moment. That is true in another respect, and that is, if you think 
about where we are in this cycle, it has taken way too long to get 
here, but the unemployment rate is quite low now. We are getting close 
to full employment. So what happens when we create the incentives for 
businesses to grow, to invest, for new businesses to launch, for people 
to invest in America--what happens when that occurs in an environment 
where the unemployment rate is very low? It sets up a bidding war for 
workers. There is no other choice. As they grow, these businesses need 
new employees to get the job done. They have to pay ever more because 
they are competing with another business down the road that also wants 
to grow and also wants to invest in new plants and equipment.
  What we are going to do is create a bidding war for workers. That 
means wages are going up. When wages go up, families have more take-
home pay. When they have more take-home pay, they have a higher 
standard of living. This is exactly how people have a chance to live 
the American dream, when the economy is thriving and growing at the 
rate that America used to take for granted. I am here to say that those 
days are coming back.

  We have some work to do. We are not done yet by any means, but I am 
confident we are going to get this done and, when we do, our 
constituents are going to live a better life as a result.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I really enjoyed listening to my 
colleague from Pennsylvania talking about this new tax reform plan that 
has just been unveiled by the Finance Committee. He is right; this is 
really exciting because it is an opportunity, after a lot of talk over 
a lot of years, to finally fix our Tax Code.
  Our Tax Code is broken. It is broken in a lot of different respects, 
but one that he pointed out so well is the fact that we actually have 
jobs and investment going overseas because of our Tax Code. It is the 
responsibility of the people who are in this body and in the House and 
in the Presidency to actually fix that. No one else can do it. Workers 
in America, including in my home State of Ohio, are competing with one 
hand tied behind their back because we have a tax code that encourages 
other companies from foreign countries to come in and buy our 
companies, to take our business, to take our market share, to make it 
harder for U.S. workers to be able to compete and win. So I think it is 
way past time, frankly, for us to fix that.
  People say: Well, we haven't reformed the Tax Code in 31 years and it 
is about time, and I agree with that. If we go back to the 
international part of our Tax Code that created a lot of these 
problems, we have to go back to John F. Kennedy, who last reformed it. 
That means that part of our Tax Code should qualify for AARP benefits; 
that is how old it is. So it is time for us to fix it, and it is really 
exciting to finally have the opportunity.
  There are three parts of this tax reform proposal, all three of which 
are really important. The first is a tax cut for the middle class. Why 
is that important? Because right now, even with the economy that is 
starting to grow a little bit, what is happening? Wages are flat, so 
expenses are up across the board.
  The biggest expense, by the way, is the one the Presiding Officer has 
been involved with, which is healthcare. People have seen their 
healthcare costs go up, as well as their premiums and their deductibles 
and their copays; yet their wages aren't going up, and that creates a 
middle-class squeeze. But it is more than healthcare. It is food. It is 
every day purchases. It is tuition, if you are trying to send your kid 
to school. Those have skyrocketed. So let's do something to actually 
give the family budget a little help; that is, the middle-class tax 
cuts that are in this proposal.
  You probably saw today that the middle-class tax cut alone provides, 
on average, $1,458 for every family. That is the median income family.
  One of the reporters here in the hall asked me: Gosh, $1,500 a 
family--why does that matter?
  I said: It matters a lot if you are living paycheck to paycheck. 
Maybe you

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are not, but a lot of people whom I represent are, and that $1,500 will 
help them to be able to make ends meet and maybe begin to save a little 
bit for vacation or retirement or for the ability to make that car 
payment. So I think this is really important.
  I would say, though, beyond just that important middle-class tax cut, 
there is something else that ought to be considered, which is, if we do 
this right--the way this has been laid out by the Finance Committee--
what is going to happen is we are going to help to create more jobs and 
higher wages.
  My colleague from Pennsylvania talked about this. With a relatively 
tight labor market, as we have more investment into these businesses, 
what is going to happen? Everyone says we are going to see wages go up. 
The Congressional Budget Office, which is a nonpartisan group, and the 
Joint Committee on Taxation, also a nonpartisan group, have looked at 
all of this. They say: Yes, there is actually going to be a benefit to 
workers if we do these business tax cuts, to be able to get the 
business rate down below the average of the other industrialized 
countries, rather than having the highest business rate in the entire 
industrialized world, which it is now, because that is going to attract 
more jobs and investment here and we will stop losing jobs and 
investment.
  There are some economists who have looked at this, as well, and they 
agree that this is going to benefit workers. In fact, there are a 
couple of economic studies that show that families will get an 
additional $4,000, on average, per family. Again, we are talking about 
middle-class families who will get the benefits that are going to come 
from more investment and more jobs and higher earnings that are going 
to happen in the business world.
  So it is not just about the middle-class tax cuts, as important as 
they are; this is also tax reform that is going right to the bottom 
line. You will be able to figure it out. Go online, use the tax 
calculator, and figure out what it means to you. But also remember that 
these other reforms, in an outdated Tax Code that is just crying out 
for reform, are going to result in additional benefits flowing to you 
and your family, as well, if we do this right, and we have to do it 
right.

  There is a study that came out recently from a firm called Ernst & 
Young. The study looked at what has been happening in America over the 
past decade or so. It said that over the last 13 years, there are 4,700 
American companies that have become foreign companies because of our 
Tax Code that would still be American companies today if we put in 
place the kind of tax reform we are talking about--20 percent rate--
below that average of the other industrialized countries and this 
international system that allows you to be more competitive--4,700 
companies. Think about that.
  There is other data out there that says twice as many foreigners are 
buying U.S. companies than U.S. companies are buying foreign companies. 
Why? Because of our Tax Code. It is just true.
  This is something that has been happening in this country, not just 
in the last couple of years but really over the last couple of decades. 
It is time for us to catch up. America needs to get back in a 
leadership position, and if we do that, we are going to see more jobs 
and more investment coming here to this country rather than going 
overseas.
  Finally, the third thing this does that is so important is it levels 
the playing field internationally. Right now we have between $2.5 
trillion and $3 trillion of earnings--money--from American companies 
that are trapped overseas. Those companies aren't bringing it back. 
Why? Because of our Tax Code. This tax reform proposal actually says to 
those companies: We want that money back here. We want you to invest in 
America. We want you to create jobs here and expand plants and 
equipment; bring your intellectual property, your patents back here, 
and then send that export out from America. That will create jobs here, 
including good jobs in research and development.
  That is what this proposal does as well. It levels that playing field 
internationally to tell the foreign companies and the foreign nations 
that are taking advantage of our current Tax Code: You know what, that 
is not going to happen anymore. That is done. We now are going to have 
a competitive tax code where we are encouraging money to come here to 
this country, and that money coming back here, invested in this 
country, will also raise the economic condition for the entire country. 
Economic growth will go up, and, again, that filters down to all of us, 
including every family I represent.
  That is why I am excited about this. I think it is overdue. I wish we 
could have done this earlier, not just last year but 10 years ago or 20 
years ago.
  Senator Hatch is on the floor tonight, and he has been talking about 
this for a few decades. He has been saying that we have to fix this. He 
is now chairman of the Finance Committee. He can do it.
  Senator McConnell is going to speak in a minute. He has talked about 
this for a long time. We have had commissions on it. We have had 
bipartisan working groups--five of them--a year and a half ago on 
reform, and those bipartisan working groups looked at this issue. I 
cochaired one of those working groups on the international side. Guess 
what. On a bipartisan basis, we said: We have to have this lower tax 
rate; we have to go to this more competitive international system. Do 
my colleagues know who the cochair of that working group was? There was 
one Republican, one Democrat on all of these working groups. It was 
Chuck Schumer from New York who is now a Democratic leader. So this has 
not been a partisan issue in the past, on the international side at 
least.
  Let's figure out how we can come together and get Republican and 
Democratic support to be able to tell the workers of America: You are 
no longer going to have to compete with one hand tied behind your back. 
We are going to give you the tools to be able to be successful for you 
and your family so that you can achieve the American dream.
  I am excited about this. Let's move forward. I look forward to the 
Finance Committee next week bringing it to the floor, and I hope we can 
have support on both sides of the aisle to get this done.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the distinguished chairman of the 
Finance Committee is on the cusp of the accomplishment of his career. 
This comprehensive tax reform will make a huge difference for America. 
I wish to commend him for the efforts that have gotten us this far.
  We have heard members of the Finance Committee speaking to the bill 
that has been presented to our conference. This is going to be an 
extraordinary accomplishment, not only for the American people but for 
the distinguished chairman of the Finance Committee.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Portman). The Senator from Louisiana.
  Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, I wish to add my words to those that have 
been said.
  Let me begin by saying that the achievement of this tax proposal is 
not about anyone in this Chamber; it is about the working families who 
for the last 8 years have not done so well. They have either lost their 
jobs or their wages have been flat and their benefits have not improved 
or, indeed, the cost of those benefits have risen dramatically. I can 
say, with the Tax Cut and Jobs Act that is being introduced today, they 
will increase their take-home pay, they will have higher wages, and 
they will have a better life.
  Now let's talk about how that would be. How will these working 
families improve?
  The Presiding Officer, the Senator from Ohio, mentioned in his 
remarks that businesses will have money to invest. There will be 
competition for workers. And if there is competition for workers, then 
workers are paid more. They are given better benefits. What do those 
better benefits and better wages mean? It means they can invest more in 
their family, in their children's future, and that, in turn, will 
change their family's life for generations to come.
  So on behalf of those working families, I echo Chairman Hatch, that 
if there is a suggestion by anyone that can make this better, I ask 
them to bring that suggestion forward because this is not about 
Republicans, this is not about Democrats, this is not about

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anybody in this Chamber; it is about those working families who, for 
the last 8 years, have not done as well as the American dream would say 
they should.
  On behalf of those working families, I congratulate Chairman Hatch 
for this job. I look forward to the passage of this bill, and I look 
forward to all of the benefits of this bill coming to help the families 
of this country and in my State of Louisiana.
  Thank you.
  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.
  Ms. HEITKAMP. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cassidy). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.