[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 187 (Wednesday, November 15, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S7229]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Tax Reform

  Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, I say to the Presiding Officer, I am glad 
you are here to replace me as the Presiding Officer of the Senate. I 
spent the last hour of the Senate presiding, and for those of you in 
the Gallery who don't know these things, I will pull back the curtain a 
little bit. It is called Presiding Officer duty, not Presiding Officer 
privilege or honor, because it is reserved for the young Senators who 
are new to the Senate, such as Senator Sullivan and me. It also means 
that we actually have to listen to our colleagues' speeches, which 
doesn't happen very often around here anymore.
  This morning I had the privilege of listening to the Democratic 
leader's speech about our tax bill and the fact that we are going to 
repeal the hated mandate of ObamaCare as part of this tax bill, and I 
just can't let stand what he said without correcting the record.
  First, the Senator from New York said that we are ``injecting 
healthcare into the tax bill.'' Injecting healthcare into the tax bill? 
I would remind him and all the other Democrats who have been denouncing 
this decision on the Senate Finance Committee that the individual 
mandate is a tax according not to me, not to Republicans, but to the 
Obama administration. That is what they argued in 2012 to the Supreme 
Court, even though they contended throughout the debate on ObamaCare in 
2009 and 2010 that it wasn't a tax. In 2012, they argued to the Supreme 
Court that the ObamaCare mandate is a tax, and the Supreme Court upheld 
it as a tax.
  I am willing to bet that the Democratic leader issued a statement in 
the summer of 2012 applauding that decision which held that the 
individual mandate is a tax. After all, it is collected on your 1040. 
It is collected by the IRS. It doesn't get more ``taxy'' than that.
  My second point is on the claim that 13 million Americans will lose 
their insurance--lose their insurance--if we repeal the mandate. Well, 
two-thirds of the American people want us to repeal the mandate, so 
they must be up to something. Secondly, let's think about what the 
mandate repeal does. It doesn't cut a single dime out of Medicaid, it 
doesn't cut a single dime out of insurance subsidies for people on the 
exchanges, and it doesn't change a single regulation of Obamacare. All 
it says is that the IRS cannot fine you for being unable to afford the 
insurance that ObamaCare made unaffordable in the first place. That is 
right. Today, if you cannot afford your insurance because ObamaCare 
made it unaffordable, the IRS will fine you and your family up to 
$2,000 a year, and that number goes up every year. Let me tell you, 
more than five out of six households who pay that fine make less than 
the median income in this country. That is right. That is a direct tax 
on working families and poor people because they can't afford the 
insurance that ObamaCare made unaffordable. In Arkansas, there are over 
55,000 families who already have to deal with the insecurity and 
financial hardship of not having health insurance and who then have to 
pay a fine to the IRS. That is why two-thirds of the American people 
have wanted us to repeal the individual mandate of ObamaCare since the 
very day that law was passed, and that is why we are about to finally 
repeal that mandate.
  In the meantime, it is going to pay for more tax relief for working-
class families. We are going to bring rates down for all of our 
families, preserve more popular or widely used deductions or credits 
that help people make ends meet, such as the home mortgage interest 
deduction credit. It will help them be a little more generous to their 
church or local charities through the charitable deduction. It will 
help them offset the cost of some of their property or State and local 
income taxes--all because we are going to repeal the hated ObamaCare 
mandate.
  I know the Democrats are in high dudgeon these days. Turn on C-SPAN, 
if you have nothing better to do, and watch the Senate Finance 
Committee, and they will say: Oh, we are injecting healthcare into the 
tax bill. Oh, 13 million people are going to lose their insurance.
  What we are doing is repealing the most hated tax of ObamaCare and 
giving the American people the freedom to choose insurance that is 
right for them without being threatened by a fine from the IRS if that 
insurance doesn't meet some Washington bureaucrat's definition of what 
is suitable. That is why two-thirds of the American people support the 
repeal of the individual mandate, and that is why, when we repeal it, 
the American people are going to have a big victory, notwithstanding 
what the Democratic leader or any other Democratic Senator has said.
  Mr. President, I yield my time.
  Have fun during Presiding Officer duty.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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