[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 187 (Wednesday, November 15, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H9257-H9258]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       SCORE ONE FOR DONALD TRUMP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, after spending a bizarre week in the 
Ways and Means Committee with a moving target of the Republican tax 
plan, we find out, amazingly, that it is actually getting worse and 
worse.
  We have just discovered that the Senate is going to repeal the 
individual healthcare mandate to to provide funding for more tax cuts 
for America's wealthy.
  The cost of that?
  There will be 13 million additional uninsured Americans, and 
everybody in the individual market will see their premiums increase 
another 10 percent next year and every year therefafter.
  Well, tomorrow, Trump is going to come to Capitol Hill to hold a 
rally

[[Page H9258]]

with Republican Members to try to make some of these nervous people 
feel a little more comfortable. No wonder Donald Trump is eager to see 
this bill pass. It is designed for Donald Trump.
  First, he is the self-proclaimed king of debt. Well, you got it in 
spades with this bill because the Republicans have raised the debt 
ceiling $1.5 trillion to finance these tax cuts for people who, 
frankly, don't need them. Because you have to pay interest on that, it 
is a $2.3 trillion additional burden on our children and grandchildren.
  It eliminates the alternative minimum tax. Even though Trump refused 
to honor his commitment to release his tax returns, one was leaked to 
David Cay Johnston, and it showed the only reason he paid substantial 
taxes in 2005 was because of the alternative minimum tax. Getting rid 
of that would save him $31 million in one year.
  There is a special break for passthrough entities. It is, 
theoretically, for small businesses, but many of the passthrough 
entities are not small businesses. They include hedge funds. Donald 
Trump's disclosure form lists hundreds of passthrough entities. That is 
how he does business.
  Of course, the biggest and most outrageous loophole is to completely 
eliminate the inheritance tax over the next 10 years. This will save a 
couple thousand people, extraordinarily wealthy people, $172 billion 
that would otherwise come to the government to be able to fund programs 
for our veterans, deal with the opioid crisis.
  Donald Trump will be able to pass off hundreds of millions, maybe a 
billion or two, tax free. Remember, most of that money had never been 
taxed in the first place. You don't become a billionaire on W-2 income. 
It is all appreciated, untaxed capital.
  Well, it also shatters a bipartisan agreement for alternative energy. 
Donald Trump is doubling down on energy of the past, trying to breathe 
life into a failing coal industry. Their bill would break a bipartisan 
agreement for wind energy, which we carefully negotiated on a 
bipartisan basis, and the industry has gone ahead and pledged billions 
of dollars.
  Eliminating that agreement, the only retroactive provision in the 
bill, puts at jeopardy billions of dollars of investment and tens of 
thousands of jobs. Score one for Donald Trump.
  But the worst element of this bill, I think--and there is a lot to 
choose from--is its Alzheimer's tax. It would deny the medical 
exemption to over 9 million middle class families to be able to deduct 
extraordinary medical expenses.
  Think of a family that is trying to cope with the challenges of a 
loved one with Alzheimer's. This costs them tens of thousands of 
dollars, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in a year. It takes 
away the tax deduction from them.
  This is an outrage. It is made for Donald Trump and large 
corporations, but, sadly, it increases taxes on many middle-income 
Americans, especially with the Alzheimer's tax, denying some of the 
middle class families in the most difficult circumstances a little tax 
relief. It is inexcusable.
  They couldn't defend it in committee. Let's see how the Republicans 
defend it on the floor of the House. But more important, let's see how 
they defend that to 9 million American families.

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