[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 196 (Friday, December 1, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7653-S7655]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TAX CUTS AND JOBS ACT

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
resume consideration of H.R. 1, which the clerk will report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 1) to provide for reconciliation pursuant to 
     titles II and V of the concurrent resolution on the budget 
     for fiscal year 2018.

  Pending:

       McConnell (for Hatch/Murkowski) amendment No. 1618, of a 
     perfecting nature.
       Baldwin motion to commit the bill to the Committee on 
     Finance, with instructions.
       Wyden (for Nelson) motion to commit the bill to the 
     Committee on Finance, with instructions.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado.


           Order for Recess Subject to the Call of the Chair

  Mr. GARDNER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that following 
the remarks of the Senator from Wisconsin, the Senate stand in recess 
subject to the call of the chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                   Recognition of the Minority Leader

  The Democratic leader is recognized.


                           Government Funding

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, before I address the issue of taxes, 
let me address the matter of the government funding bill.
  We are now only a week away from a government shutdown, which, to 
remind my colleagues, could cost our economy thousands of jobs and 
billions of dollars, as it did in 2013. I think a government shutdown 
is something we all desperately want to avoid, Democrats and 
Republicans--I talked to some of my colleagues this morning--with the 
exception, it seems, of the President.
  This morning's Washington Post reports that President Trump has told 
his confidantes that a government shutdown could be good for him 
politically and that he has asked friends about how a shutdown would 
affect him politically. It is disappointing but maybe not surprising 
that President Trump appears to be putting politics before the well-
being of the American people. As President, the welfare of the American 
people should always come first--always.
  We have a lot of things to accomplish by the end of the year, and a 
government spending deal is particularly important for our men and 
women in uniform, as well as a host of programs that create jobs and 
boost the economy.
  The President talks about defending the troops and then threatens a 
shutdown. It is a contradiction--a contradiction--and I am sure our 
generals would tell him that even playing around with the possibility 
of sequester and shutting down the government is no good for our armed 
services, as well as for the rest of the country.
  We should all be focused on avoiding a government shutdown. Certainly 
Democrats will be working with our Republican colleagues in Congress to 
that end. I think our Republican colleagues agree. I hope they won't 
succumb to President Trump's whim based on a political decision and not 
on what is good for America. President Trump must change his tune--and 
soon--if he wants to be a constructive partner in those discussions 
rather than the focal point of blame.
  Madam President, on taxes, my Republican friends have stretched into 
day 2 of their debate on the bill, which still lacks resolution on some 
critical issues.
  After promising over the past few months that their tax bill would 
pay for itself through economic growth, the Joint Committee on Taxation 
came out with a report yesterday that showed that these promises were 
unfounded, way off the mark. Even considering economic growth, the 
Republican tax bill will add roughly $1 trillion to the deficit. And 
many economists have said

[[Page S7654]]

that this dynamic scoring doesn't work at all. Here, the JCT gave 
credence to the theory of dynamic scoring but then came out with a 
number that was not the kind of wild exaggerations we are hearing from 
the Secretary of the Treasury, from the President, and from some of our 
Republican colleagues, particularly those of the Club for Growth bent.
  Earlier in this debate, Republicans claimed that this would be a tax 
cut for everybody and that nobody in the middle class is going to get a 
tax increase. Independent analyses show that these claims were not 
valid, and to their credit, some Republicans corrected the record.
  Now Republicans have gotten the ``dynamic scoring'' they have 
demanded for years. They are in charge. They put dynamic scoring in 
place. It is still not good enough. As recently as this week, the 
Republican leader and others claimed that this bill would not add to 
the deficit. We know now that even under the dynamic scoring method the 
Republican Party asked for and received, this bill would add $1 
trillion to the deficit. All of the claims that tax cuts for the 
wealthy and corporations will pay for themselves were not correct. It 
is time for my Republican friends to admit the error and come clean 
with the American people.
  The fact that we received the dynamic score only a day before a final 
vote on the bill shows just how foolhardy it is to rush a bill like 
this through.
  From press reports, we know that the Republicans are making the 
passthrough provisions more generous, widening what was already a 
gargantuan tax loophole for wealthy business owners. Why should wealthy 
business owners pay a significantly lower rate on their personal 
income, because they are paying no corporate tax if they use the 
passthrough, than the average American? That is what this bill does. 
Hedge funds, big fancy law firms, and lobbyist firms would all get a 
lower rate than the average American because of the passthrough. The 
average American who makes $100,000, $200,000 is already paying in the 
30-percent range.
  From press reports--you would think that maybe Republicans would be 
concerned by the many reports that their bill increases taxes on 60 
percent of middle-class families by the end of the day. No. Instead, 
the holdout Republicans are concerned that this bill isn't generous 
enough to corporations and wealthy business owners. So now the 
Republican leadership is working to fix that. In the waning hours, this 
bill is tilting even further toward business, even further away from 
families. Every time the choice is between big corporations and 
families, the Republicans choose the big corporations.
  And still no one knows what the final bill will look like. Why on 
Earth wouldn't you want to spend more than a few hours looking at a 
bill of this magnitude? What might have been snuck in? What might have 
been changed by mistake--an innocent mistake? There are so many reasons 
to not rush this bill through, but we know why it is being done. We 
know why Republican Members will only have a few hours at most to read 
the draft legislation before voting on it.
  Notching a political win, I would say to my colleagues, isn't a good 
enough reason to throw common sense and legislative responsibility out 
the window. Notching a political win isn't a good enough reason to 
raise taxes and premiums on millions of middle-classes families when 
there is a much better bill to be had by working in a bipartisan way, 
Democrats and Republicans, across the aisle, together. My Republican 
friends must know that ``we needed to notch a political win'' isn't a 
good enough excuse for a constituent who asks why you voted to raise 
their taxes but slash them for big corporations.
  Today may be the first day of the new Republican Party--one that 
raises taxes on the middle class. The one thing Republicans always 
promised the middle class is, we are not going to raise your taxes. A 
good number of my colleagues from the other side of the aisle--the 
junior Senator from Texas--I heard him talk about it--said he doesn't 
want to raise taxes on any middle-class person, but this bill does it.
  The Republican Party is abandoning its long-held principles to please 
its political pay masters. It is a bad move for the Republicans, as 
well as a bad move for America.
  Again, ``we needed to notch a political win'' is going to be no 
excuse when your constituents complain that they are getting the short 
end of the stick in this tax bill and wealthy corporations, the richest 
people, are not.
  Democrats remain united against any middle-class tax increase, and we 
will fight to reverse that. The stakes are too high. Our economy is 
already stacked against working men and women. Corporate profits and 
stocks have reached alltime highs. The top 1 percent capture 20 percent 
of the national income--higher than at any time in our history since 
the roaring twenties.
  Meanwhile, for too many Americans, the American dream is slipping 
away. Hard-working Americans who get up every morning worried about 
paying the bills, making the mortgage payment, the tuition payment, the 
healthcare bill, are not getting the help they need in this bill. 
Instead, it is going to the wealthiest, biggest corporations on a 
theory of trickle-down, which almost everyone accepts and rightwing 
economists agree has never made sense.
  Any moral tax bill would focus on giving a leg up to middle-class 
Americans, to working class Americans. Instead, this bill directs the 
lion's share of its benefits to those at the very top--the already 
wealthy, the already powerful. It makes healthcare less affordable and 
less accessible. It will deprive the government of the resources needed 
to support the military, scientific research, education, and 
infrastructure.
  The hole it blows in the deficit will--make no mistake--endanger 
Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Republicans, including 
President Trump, have openly admitted that they will seek changes in 
this program after the tax bill. Senator Sanders has outlined 
eloquently how dangerous this bill is to the future of Social Security 
and Medicare. I know our Republican colleagues who came down to argue 
against him were all on the defensive.
  All the things our President and Republicans say they wanted to do 
are not happening. And this bill moves in the opposite direction--not 
only on helping the wealthy and not helping the middle class in the way 
it needs to but also in endangering Social Security and Medicare. Most 
insidious of all, the bill hides a ticking time bomb of middle-class 
tax hikes at the center of our Tax Code. Who would want to vote for 
that?
  Many of my Republican friends feel that the hard right--big, wealthy 
corporate interests--will put these ads on TV saying that this bill 
helps the middle class. It is not going to work. When the middle class 
gets a tax increase, they are going to know why, and they are going to 
know whom to blame, and these ads will have faded into the air.
  Today, my Republican friends can choose to cement their party as the 
party that raises taxes on the middle class. It will be a dramatic 
turning point in a downward spiral for the Republicans and something 
they have never believed in before. But Republicans have an 
alternative. They can step back from the brink and work with Democrats 
on a bipartisan tax reform bill to deliver across-the-board tax relief 
to the middle class, a bill that makes our businesses more competitive 
while closing egregious corporate loopholes and that grows our economy 
without adding a penny to the deficit.
  Bipartisan tax reform--not this cynical bill, not this partisan 
exercise, not this bill that seems to please the 1 percent but not the 
rest of America--is possible but only if my friends and colleagues will 
abandon this bill and reach out for a better kind of politics.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wisconsin.


                            Motion to Commit

  Ms. BALDWIN. Madam President, I rise to offer motion to do something 
that this tax plan fails to do: make good on President Trump's promise 
to close the carried interest tax loophole. This motion has the support 
of Senators Whitehouse, Donnelly, and Van Hollen.
  I think we need to make our tax system simpler and fairer for hard-
working families, businesses--particularly

[[Page S7655]]

small businesses--and manufacturers, and that is what I have been 
working for. Unfortunately, this is not the plan being presented today 
by Senate Republicans.
  Let's be honest with the American people. This bill is largely a tax 
giveaway to the wealthiest few and big corporations, while millions of 
middle-class families will get a tax hike. With this partisan bill from 
across the aisle, big corporations get permanent tax breaks--
permanent--while middle-class families will see tax increases. In fact, 
most Americans earning less than $75,000 a year will see tax increases. 
That is simply not fair.
  It is also not fair that the top 1 percent will end up with over 60 
percent of the benefits, and in exchange, 13 million more will lose 
health insurance. Healthcare premiums will increase by 10 percent, and 
Medicare and Medicaid have been put on the chopping block to pay for 
it.
  In addition, with the Senate Republican plan, powerful corporations 
can still deduct their State and local taxes, but they completely 
eliminate the State and local tax deduction for individual taxpayers. 
This deduction ensures households aren't taxed twice by the Federal 
Government on money they have already paid in State and local taxes, 
including property taxes. But with the current Senate plan, nearly one 
in three Wisconsinites will lose their personal income, sales, and 
property tax deductions. A recent study shows that it could decrease 
the value of home ownership. The average deduction in Wisconsin is 
$11,653, and nearly $10 billion of Wisconsinites' paychecks would be 
subject to a double tax--all to pay for a plan that favors those at the 
top. What is more, by the latest estimation from our own congressional 
scorekeeper, this plan will add $1 trillion--$1 trillion--to our 
deficit, breaking our promise to the next generation and sticking them 
with the bill.

  Our Tax Code ought to reward hard work more than it rewards wealth. 
It doesn't do that today, and it will not do that tomorrow if this bill 
passes. In fact, this Republican plan's primary purpose is to reward 
Fortune 500 corporations who will simply reward the wealth of 
shareholders, not the hard work that drives productivity and growth 
across our economy.
  The primary promise of this legislation makes the same promise that 
has not been kept to workers for decades. Trickle-down economics has 
not worked in the past, and it is not going to work now. American 
workers know that. But my colleagues, rushing to pass this legislation, 
don't seem to care, because the only thing that matters is delivering 
for donors, who have too much power and influence in Washington.
  I want to see loopholes closed, like the one that favors Wall Street 
hedge funds and allows them to pay a lower tax rate than many Wisconsin 
workers pay. Earlier this year, I introduced the Carried Interest 
Fairness Act to close the carried interest tax loophole for 
millionaires and billionaires on Wall Street.
  The carried interest loophole allows certain investment managers to 
take advantage of the preferential 20 percent long-term capital gains 
tax rates on the income they get for managing other people's money, 
rather than the ordinary income tax rates of up to 39.6 percent that 
American workers pay. My legislation closes the carried interest tax 
loophole by ensuring that income earned by managing other people's 
money is taxed at the same ordinary income tax rates as the vast 
majority of working Americans pay.
  As a candidate, President Trump included closing the carried interest 
tax loophole in his tax reform plan. While campaigning in Detroit last 
year, he said: ``We will eliminate the carried interest deduction and 
other special interest loopholes that have been so good for Wall Street 
investors, and for people like me, but unfair to American workers.''
  Then this May, after being asked why his tax reform outline didn't 
mention carried interest after campaigning on its closure, the 
President responded by saying:

       It's out. Done . . . carried interest was great for me, but 
     carried interest was unfair and it's gone.

  I agree that it is unfair and it should be eliminated. However, it is 
not gone with this legislation. This loophole for Wall Street is still 
in the bill. Why? Is it because my Republican colleagues on the other 
side of the aisle simply do not believe a word this President says? Is 
it because Wall Street lobbyists, big banks, and hedge funds have such 
a grip on Washington? Is it because these are the very donors that this 
legislation is meant to serve with a win?
  Today I am offering a motion to close the carried interest tax 
loophole once and for all. It is simply unfair for Wisconsin workers to 
pay higher income tax rates than a billionaire hedge fund on Wall 
Street.
  If you agree, you will support this motion. If you want to help 
President Trump keep his promises to the American people, you will 
support this motion. Let's do right by the American people and close 
this tax loophole for the wealthy on Wall Street. Let's make sure that 
our Tax Code rewards hard work as much as it currently rewards wealth. 
If that isn't simple and fair, I don't know what is.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________