[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 203 (Wednesday, December 13, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7981-S7982]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Republican Tax Bill

  The election of Doug Jones should have another effect on this Chamber 
as well. It would be unseemly and imprudent to rush a massive piece of 
partisan legislation through this Chamber before Doug Jones is seated. 
To rush such a huge piece of legislation when the people of Alabama 
have just sent us a new Senator and try to jam it through before he 
gets here would be so wrong. Doug Jones will be the duly elected 
Senator from the State of Alabama in a few short weeks. The Governor 
didn't appoint him. The people chose him. It would be wrong for Senate 
Republicans to jam through this tax bill without giving the newly 
elected Senator from Alabama the opportunity to cast his vote. The 
people of Alabama deserve to have their representative in the Senate to 
debate the biggest issues of the day, and the tax bill certainly falls 
under that category.
  Today, we Senate Democrats are calling on Leader McConnell to hit 
pause on his tax bill and not hold a final vote on it until Doug Jones 
is sworn into the Senate. That is exactly what Republicans argued when 
Scott Brown was elected in 2010. Referring to healthcare, Leader 
McConnell said it would be ``gamesmanship'' to pursue big-ticket 
legislation before Scott Brown was seated. He asked us to ``honor the 
wishes of the people of Massachusetts.'' Leader Reid, in fact, acceded 
to that wish and waited until Scott Brown was a Senator before there 
were any further votes on healthcare. ``We're going to wait until the 
new senator arrives until we do anything more on healthcare,'' he said.
  As too often has happened, Senator McConnell does one thing when 
Republicans are in charge and a different thing when Democrats are in 
charge. Here is another example. McConnell says: New Senator--in that 
case, Scott Brown--slow down work on major legislation, and Reid 
acceded.
  We are calling on Senator McConnell to do the same thing today. Let's 
see if he does. We are calling on Senator McConnell to do just as 
Senator Reid did--to honor the wishes of the people of a State that has 
newly elected a Senator and to wait to move forward on the tax bill 
until Senator Jones arrives.
  If Republicans insist on barreling ahead--and I understand the 
pressure is on them from their hard-right multibillionaire paymasters--
they will be pouring gasoline on the fire. Their tax bill--written in 
back rooms, rushed through this Chamber with such recklessness--which 
gives enormous breaks to the wealthy and corporations while it raises 
taxes on millions, many of them in the middle class, is being roundly 
rejected by the American people. Poll after poll shows by ratios equal 
to, a little less than, or a little more than two to one that the 
American people reject this bill. They know what is in it. They don't 
know all of the details, but they know it favors the wealthy and 
powerful over them, over the middle class. They know that, even if they 
are getting a small tax break, the vast majority of the tax breaks go 
to the wealthiest and the most powerful, and they don't like it. Above 
all, they know this tax bill will clobber the suburbs, drastically 
cutting back on the State and local deductions and other deductions 
they cut back on, which will be a gut punch to millions of middle-class 
and upper middle-class Americans who live in the suburbs. They are the 
very same people who are turning away from President Trump, who helped 
to propel Doug Jones to victory last night, and who helped to propel 
Mr. Northam to be Governor of Virginia when his opponent Gillespie was 
calling for a $10,000 tax break for the middle class.
  The longer this bill sits behind closed doors, the worse it is 
getting. Rather than improving it for the middle class, they are 
cutting the rate further on the wealthiest of Americans, according to 
all reports--to reduce the top rate another 2.5 percent, only going to 
people who make over $300,000 a year, while raising taxes on the middle 
class. What is going on in the heads of our Republican colleagues? Why 
would they do something that seems so wrong for America and so against 
what the American people want? We know why. The Koch brothers and the 
Club for Growth, funded largely by billionaires and millionaires, and 
all these other groups are fanatic: Just cut taxes on the rich.
  I don't even hear them arguing for helping the middle class, except 
in TV ads that are deceptive, in my judgment. But they are doing it for 
that

[[Page S7982]]

reason. Our Republican colleagues, by trying to appease these very 
wealthy people--a small number of greedy people--are writing their 
political doom, in my opinion.
  The longer this bill sits behind closed doors, the worse it is 
getting. It is not improving things for the middle class. It is making 
them worse. Instead of learning from their mistakes, instead of heeding 
one of the lessons of the election last night, Republicans are doubling 
down on helping the wealthy and powerful and doing nothing for, if not 
harming, the middle class.
  In 2010 on the floor of the Senate, Leader McConnell said:

       We need to move in a new direction--a dramatically new 
     direction. That is the message of Virginia. That is the 
     message of New Jersey. That is the message of Massachusetts.

  You could replace Massachusetts with Alabama and say the exact same 
thing today. In sum, on process, on policy, and on politics, pausing 
this tax bill and going back to the drawing board is the right thing 
for Republicans to do. I hope, for the sake of this country, they will 
do just that.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. CANTWELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.