[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 187 (Wednesday, November 15, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H9261]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        BUILD A BETTER TOMORROW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Woodall) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WOODALL. Mr. Speaker, I tell folks back home that they should 
watch this time at 10 in the morning, where any Member can come down 
and talk about anything they want to talk about, because you can learn 
a lot about one another.
  There are folks who come to this floor every single morning to 
celebrate somebody in their district back home, to build up the country 
with optimism, and with the belief that if only we unite, if only we 
work harder, we can make tomorrow better than yesterday was.
  There are those Members who come to the floor on a regular basis to 
tear things down. I tell you, Mr. Speaker, I have been in this world 
for 47 years. I know it is easier to tear things down than it is to 
build things up. Something has happened in this institution where the 
currency is how quickly can you tear the other side down instead of how 
quickly can you partner with them to build things up.
  Tax reform is hard. I have a bill for folks who are uncomfortable 
with the elimination of special carve-outs, deductions, exemptions, and 
lobbyist loopholes. For folks who are uncomfortable with those things, 
I have a bill that repeals absolutely every one. It is called the 
FairTax Act. It is H.R. 25.
  We are not going to vote on that bill today because this institution 
is not comfortable eliminating absolutely everything all at once. But 
there is a difference of opinion, Mr. Speaker, in what the Tax Code is 
designed for. Is it designed to punish people that you dislike and 
reward people that you do like? Or is it designed simply to raise the 
revenue so that the government can do the things it needs to do?
  I believe the latter.
  My friends have come to the floor today and they have said: Oh, we 
are eliminating this exemption and that deduction, and that carve-out 
and that loophole, and those things help with the cost of education.
  Well, I say to my friends: If we want to help with the cost of 
education, let's deal with education.
  The Tax Code is not the solution to every problem. Oftentimes it is 
the source of those problems.
  For folks who believe that the cost of medical care is too expensive, 
I agree. Another carve-out, another loophole, another exemption, the 
Tax Code will not solve that problem. It may mask that problem, but it 
will not solve it. We have to come together to solve the healthcare 
inflation problem.
  I say to my friends who are worried about the medical cost deduction: 
I worry about that, too. I worried about it when the Affordable Care 
Act made it 33 percent harder for Americans to claim that; when it 
raised that base level from 7.5 percent to 10 percent, meaning so many 
more Americans couldn't claim it.
  This bill doubles the standard deduction so that families don't have 
to worry about the magnitude of their burden. Simply, the fact that 
they have a burden means that they will be able to exempt it.
  My friend from Pennsylvania came and told the story of two families 
from Pennsylvania working in a picture tube factory. It was a powerful 
story of American manufacturing disappearing. If I looked around this 
institution to find a millennial here, they wouldn't even know what a 
picture tube is. That factory was going to go out of business because 
technology surpassed it.
  We are losing American manufacturing overseas every single day, not 
because we are not the hardest working people on the planet, but 
because we have the most punitive Tax Code on the planet. Everyone here 
knows it.
  In 1986, everyone knew it. America had the least competitive Tax Code 
on the planet, but Democrats and Republicans came together--Ronald 
Reagan and Tip O'Neill--and they took America from worst to first. 
Decades of economic prosperity ensued. We are doing that very same 
thing today: worst to first.
  Would be that it were Democrats and Republicans together that were 
doing that, but I tell you, Mr. Speaker, the time is not too late to 
come together to do that. It was a worthy goal in 1986. It is a worthy 
goal today. The Tax Code should not be picking winners and losers. It 
should be creating an economic environment where the American worker 
can succeed; where the American worker and its commitment is not at a 
disadvantage to the rest of the world, but it is at least on a level 
playing field, if not advantaged to the rest of the world.
  We can do that together today, and I hope that we will. It will 
always be easier to tear things down and than to build things up, Mr. 
Speaker. But I know the men and women in this Chamber on a personal 
level, and I know they didn't come to tear things down. They came to 
build a better day tomorrow for their children, their grandchildren, 
and the constituents that they represent.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope that we will fulfill that promise together.

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