[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our obscenely outdated international tax regime.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.
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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.