[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 187 (Wednesday, November 15, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H9258-H9259]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       THE GOP TAX BILL IS A FRONTAL ASSAULT ON THE MIDDLE CLASS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Eshoo) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, the tax bill being considered, H.R. 1, is a 
frontal assault on the middle class and it will do lasting damage to 
our country.
  The bill is a dishonest bait-and-switch for the 36 million middle and 
lower class families who will see their taxes increase under this plan 
to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans and large 
multinational corporations. It is paid for by eliminating the few 
remaining benefits in our Tax Code for the middle class and charging 
$1.7 trillion to the national credit card, leaving our children and our 
grandchildren to pay for it.
  This bill lets the middle class down at every turn, and it should be 
defeated. It eliminates the deduction for medical expenses, which over 
9 million middle class Americans claimed in 2015, including over 1 
million taxpayers in my home State of California. This is especially 
harmful to older Americans struggling with high medical costs and 
serious illnesses, like cancer and Alzheimer's, and Americans with 
disabilities.
  It takes direct aim at college students across the country, raising 
the future costs of higher education by $65 billion over 10 years by 
eliminating the deductibility of interest on student loans.
  It taxes employer tuition assistance benefits for students and 
tuition waivers for graduate students by treating this as income, 
making it more expensive for future scientists, medical professionals, 
educators, and other leaders to get an education.

                              {time}  1015

  It eliminates the lifetime learning credit and the deductibility of 
interest of student loans at a time when student loan debt in the 
United States just reached $1.5 trillion. This is a bitter pill to ask 
our Nation's student borrowers to swallow.
  Very importantly for my constituents, this bill bulldozes the State 
and local tax deduction. Almost 200,000 of my constituents claimed an 
average State and local tax deduction of $31,193 in 2015. Under this 
plan, businesses can still claim this deduction. For example, the 
National Education Association estimates are that 250,000 education 
jobs will be put at risk because of this lack of deductibility. Just 
yesterday, the Fraternal Order of Police spoke out in opposition to 
this bill's dismantling of this deduction, noting that their salaries 
and the equipment that they use are paid for by State and local taxes 
on property sales and income. The Institute on Taxation and Economic 
Policy found that California stands to be the biggest overall loser in 
this plan and faces a $12.1 billion tax increase in 2017 alone.
  The bill also takes aim at the most valuable asset of the middle 
class:

[[Page H9259]]

their home. It limits the mortgage interest deduction used by 
homeowners, and this is eminently unfair. Californians just experienced 
the worst wildfires in our State's history, with over 14,000 homes 
lost. What does this bill do? It removes the deductibility for property 
losses due to natural disasters. I find this to be especially cruel.
  What the bill does do is take special care of the wealthiest 5,500 
estates in this country by doubling the estate tax exemption to $22 
million and then repealing it, removing the whole thing, by 2024.
  Finally, the bill has terrible implications for the future of 
Medicare and the guarantee it has provided for Americans for over 50 
years. Without budget changes to offset the $1.5 trillion increase to 
deficits over 10 years, the bill will trigger automatic spending cuts 
under the statutory pay-as-you-go.
  The Republican majority and the administration claim that this tax 
plan will ``pay for itself.'' It is bad math, because we were promised 
in the early 2000s that jobs would be created, that the economy would 
grow, and the outcome was $1.8 trillion of debt.
  The investments that pay off the most are the investments we make in 
the American people, in education, in job creation, in infrastructure. 
These are critical areas that always expand our economy.
  This House should reject this unfair, unbalanced, fiscally 
irresponsible plan that dims the future of our country by attacking the 
middle class.

                          ____________________