[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 185 (Monday, November 13, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S7171]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Republican Tax Plan

  Madam President, now on taxes. Today the Finance Committee will begin 
to mark up the Senate Republican tax plan. The bill put forward by the 
chairman will not contain the ideas of a single Democrat in the Senate. 
It is the result of not a single negotiation between our two parties. 
It has been discussed in exactly zero hearings, its merits weighed by 
exactly zero expert witnesses.
  Rather, the tax bill is one party's backroom deliberations, and 
though it will affect nearly every person and industry in the country, 
it is being rushed through committee and may come to the floor of the 
Senate in a matter of weeks.
  The Republican leadership is making a mockery of the legislative 
process, a mockery of regular order, and the reason for such reckless 
haste is all too obvious. The product is a wretched one.
  If Republicans had crafted a popular bill that could get bipartisan 
support, they would have announced it with great fanfare and fanned out 
all over the country to champion it. Instead, it is being rushed 
through with hardly any consideration because my Republican friends 
know from their experience with healthcare that the longer an unpopular 
idea is left out in the open, the more it would fester in the public's 
mind.
  That is what will happen with this tax bill because of one simple 
reason: It is focused on the wealthy to the exclusion of the middle 
class. While big corporations and wealthy individuals get lower rates 
and new permanent loopholes, the middle class gets benefits that 
expire. Corporations will be able to continue to deduct their State and 
local taxes while individual taxpayers will not. Wealthy estates worth 
over $5 million are ensured a massive tax break while millions of 
middle-class families lose their popular deductions like the personal 
exemption.

  That is why, according to an analysis by the New York Times, under 
the House Republican bill, nearly one-third of all middle-class 
taxpayers will see a tax hike next year. Let me repeat that. Under the 
House Republican bill, nearly one-third of all middle-class taxpayers 
will see a tax hike next year, and almost half of middle-class 
taxpayers will see a hike in 10 years.
  According to a JCT analysis of the Senate Republican bill, of all the 
taxpayers making less than $200,000 a year, 13 million will see a tax 
hike next year in 2019, and nearly 20 million Americans will see a tax 
hike by 2027. Another 64 million Americans making under $200,000 a year 
will see no change in their taxes. Meanwhile, everyone at the very top, 
the top 1 percent, will see tax cuts of tens of thousands of dollars. 
One hundred times more money would go to a family earning $1 million a 
year as a family making between $40,000 and $50,000.
  Now, let me ask you, who needs the tax break more, the family making 
$50,000 or the family making $1 million? God bless the wealthy. So many 
of them worked hard to achieve great wealth. Good, but they don't need 
a tax break; middle-class people do.
  Now President Trump is suggesting Republicans tip the scales even 
more in favor of the rich by repealing the individual mandate to pay 
for more tax cuts for the rich.
  Here is what he tweeted. I find this hard to believe. How out of 
touch can the President be with the American people?

       How about ending the unfair and highly unpopular 
     Indiv[idual] Mandate . . . & reducing taxes even further? Cut 
     top rate to 35% w/all of the rest going to middle [class] 
     income cuts.

  What does the proposal do? It sends premiums, healthcare premiums, 
for millions of middle-class Americans skyrocketing, all so that the 
wealthy--the top bracket--can get even bigger tax breaks than they get 
under the original Republican plan. The middle class only gets the 
leftovers, if there are any at all.
  Sooner or later, even President Trump's core supporters will realize 
that he is selling them out. That is why most polls show that less than 
one-third of Americans support the Republican tax plan, and a majority 
actually oppose it. That is an astounding fact.
  Tax cuts are historically popular. Somehow Republicans have managed 
to make a tax cut bill politically unpopular, again, for a 
straightforward reason. On balance, the tax cut is for big corporations 
and a tiny group of wealthy Americans while millions in the middle 
class pay more to help finance it. To make tax cuts unpopular is quite 
a feat. I would urge my Republican colleagues not to fall for the bait.
  There is broad agreement on the goals of tax reform between our two 
parties. We all want to lower middle-class taxes. We all want to reduce 
the burden on small businesses and encourage companies to locate jobs 
here in the United States instead of shipping them overseas. We could 
put a tax bill together that does those things. This bill doesn't.
  I know many of my Republican colleagues are concerned about the 
deficit. They are worried about the one-party legislative ramrodding 
that is eroding the grand traditions of this body, and they are afraid 
of passing a tax bill that raises taxes on millions of working 
Americans in their States.
  So I say to my Republican friends: Hit the brakes on this bill. Come 
back to the table. We can work on a real bipartisan tax reform bill 
that delivers middle-class tax relief but only--only--if you defeat 
this bill first.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, what is the parliamentary situation?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senate is considering the Kan 
nomination.
  Mr. LEAHY. I thank the distinguished Acting President pro tempore.