[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 197 (Monday, December 4, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7823-S7824]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          REPUBLICAN TAX BILL

  Mr. COONS. Mr. President, when we were last here together, it was 
roughly 2 a.m. Saturday morning as this Chamber took up and passed by a 
very narrow margin--I believe 51 to 49--one of the biggest, broadest, 
most comprehensive pieces of financial legislation likely in our 
lifetime. The last time this Congress took up and passed comprehensive 
tax reform, I was 21 years old. It has been a long time since a bill of 
this scope and reach and impact has been considered, debated, and 
passed in this Chamber. I wanted to give some reflections this evening 
on what happened very early Saturday morning and what it means.
  First, it did not have to be this way. That bill passed on a straight 
party-line vote. Not one Democrat voted for it, and all but one 
Republican Senator voted for it. I joined more than a dozen of my 
colleagues in a press conference I think 2 weeks ago, saying that we 
wanted to work across the aisle and that we were trying yet getting no 
opportunity to do so.
  Weeks and weeks ago, a group of us put out a letter to our colleagues 
saying that we wanted to work together on tax reform that would make 
our country more competitive and that would deal with some of the long-
unaddressed issues in our Tax Code and yet be fiscally responsible. And 
right up until Saturday, I was working with a group of Republicans and 
Democrats to try to find a way to move forward on tax reform that would 
not blow up our deficit and debt, give real tax relief to middle-class 
Americans, and significantly reduce the corporate tax rate. Alas, we 
came up short.
  I wanted to give just a few moments of reflection on how I see the 
tax bill that ultimately moved through this Chamber last week.
  First, on the process, the idea that you do your best work at 
something like 2 in the morning--adopting a nearly 500-page piece of 
legislation without anyone having had the chance to really read it and 
understand it--I think defies common sense.
  Second, I think that the idea that the best legislating is done by 
only one party has been proven to be incorrect, whether it is big 
pieces of legislation done by only Democrats or big pieces done by only 
Republicans. Part of the point of this Chamber--and the balance and the 
separation of powers that our Founders crafted into the Constitution--
was the idea that when we listen to each other and compromise, we 
produce better legislation, better laws, better justice.
  Last, I would like to talk for a moment about the values that 
underlie not just this process but the outcome of this bill, because in 
speeches and comments and debates here on the floor and in materials 
put out over the last 2 weeks, there has been a lot of talk about 
financial matters, about percentages, about numbers, and about the 
Joint Committee on Taxation or the Congressional Budget Office. There 
has been a lot of jargon and a lot of insider talk that has frankly 
left a cloud that has made it difficult for most Americans to 
understand what was at stake and what was at work in the steady 
progress toward that partisan passage of the tax bill so early on 
Saturday morning.
  Let's talk for a moment, if we could, about the human values 
implicated by this bill. Let's talk less about fiscal jargon and 
financial details and more about where it will land.
  I am sure it comes as no surprise to you that ultimately I voted 
against the bill. I was willing to do bipartisan tax reform that would 
allow President Trump to meet his expressed goal of delivering a 
Christmas gift to the American people--in particular, to the American 
middle class--but I wasn't willing to sign off on a bill that would add 
$1 trillion to our national debt and that laid the groundwork we are 
already hearing for calls to slash Medicare and Medicaid. Once this 
Christmas package is opened, the middle class will realize that its 
real impact is the steady increase of the tax burden on them and the 
steady decrease, over the years ahead, of critical, vital Federal 
programs like Medicare and Medicaid that have made such a difference to 
so many in need for so long.
  For reasons that elude me, most of this country was not actively 
engaged in this tax debate. I had about 230 calls from Delaware on last 
Friday--200 opposed and 20 in favor, so 10 to 1 against. But I didn't 
hear from folks who might have understood and might have spoken up 
about the long-term, grinding impact this tax bill will have on those 
in real need in our country.
  I wanted to take a moment here on the floor to reflect on something 
that happened late last week in the Budget Committee as they were 
marking up the bill. As several dozen clergymen, men and women of 
different faiths, gathered together outside in a moment of civil 
disobedience, a few of them--friends of mine--were arrested--arrested 
in a cry they had hoped would be heard to express their concern about 
the impact of this tax bill on the poor and needy in our Nation.
  I stand tonight as a Senator. I stand tonight as someone who 
represents Delaware. I stand tonight as someone who was elected not to 
serve one particular faith tradition but who is deeply informed by my 
faith tradition and the Gospel that I read. In the Gospel According to 
Luke, Jesus said: ``He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the 
poor.''
  I just wanted to stand here for a moment and say that while the 
Gospel is good news to the poor, this tax bill surely is not. Some of 
the best known, simple passages in the New Testament of the Christian 
Bible say you cannot serve both God and wealth. Jesus's call in Matthew 
25: Inasmuch as you did this to the least of these, you did it unto me.
  This preference for the poor, this focus on the least among us, is 
not new to the New Testament; it is deeply rooted in the Torah and in 
the Judeo-Christian values that underlie all of Christianity. In 
Proverbs, the Torah teaches that those who oppress the poor insult 
their Maker. Deuteronomy Chapter 15 teaches that you should open your 
hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.
  Lastly, it seems to me that while the Bible, the New Testament, and 
the Torah teach these things about God's deep preference that we be 
kind to one another, that we care for one another, that we support 
those in need around us, that doesn't inevitably lead to one party's 
position or another. It doesn't inevitably lead to one clear economic

[[Page S7824]]

theory or policy or another. But it does say that before we took 
dramatic action that will reset the ground for a generation, that I 
believe will inevitably lead to a loss of security and stability and 
opportunity for those in need in our country, we should have reflected. 
We should have listened to each other. We should have respected the 
greatest traditions of this country that say that we are most American 
when we open the doors of opportunity to all, when we create chances 
for those who are struggling amongst us to have a brighter future. And 
as I searched through what I understood of this 500-page bill thrust 
upon us late on a Friday night and marked up and voted on early on a 
Saturday morning, I found none of that. I found an incredibly expensive 
bill that even some titans of industry have said will add little to the 
growth of this economy and much to the burden of debt of this country.
  I know people of good faith on both sides have differing views about 
the impact of this bill, but I, for one, felt called tonight to come to 
this floor and say that I think we have made not just a mistake of 
fiscal policy, but I think that in moving this bill forward, we have 
failed in our most fundamental call to hear each other, to work 
together, and to be mindful that we do not cause harm to those in our 
society who look to us to make the future brighter, to open the doors 
of opportunity wider, and to listen to some of the most ancient and 
profound voices in the traditions that lay the foundation of this free 
society; that we legislate worst when we legislate against the least of 
our brethren.
  Thank you.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________