[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 203 (Wednesday, December 13, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7992-S7993]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Tax Reform Bill

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about 
the tax relief and tax reduction legislation that the conference 
committee is currently working on. To me and to all Americans, this is 
a very important piece of legislation. I think it is going to get even 
better as the House and the Senate work to hammer out the differences 
to help lower the tax rates for American families.
  When you look at this legislation, there are so many policies that 
will help to make America's economy grow. Families across the country 
will get a tax break. It is what they need. It is what they have been 
looking for, for a long time. Main Street businesses will also get a 
tax break. When people get a raise like that, they invest in their 
families, and they invest in their communities. They create jobs. Wages 
go up. The economy grows, and our Nation gets stronger.
  You don't have to take my word for it. Respected mainstream 
economists are saying exactly the same thing. They agree that our 
economy needs to grow. They agree that the legislation we are working 
on--which passed the Senate, passed the House, and is being joined 
together--will deliver the growth that our Nation needs.
  In October the Council of Economic Advisers put out a report looking 
at some of the ideas for tax relief. This is a group that advises the 
President on economic issues. Their report found that the tax plan, 
like the one Republicans wrote, will grow the economy between 3 percent 
and 5 percent. That is real growth. It is strong growth, and it is good 
news for America.
  There was another study that came out in October. That was by a group 
of

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economists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston 
University. They did their own calculations and used their own numbers, 
and they found the exact same good news for the American economy. Just 
like the other report, this one said that the Republican tax plan would 
grow the economy by between 3 percent and 5 percent.
  A third study was released in November. It was by the Tax Foundation. 
Again, it is a respected group of economists who study this kind of 
issue for a living. They looked specifically at the legislation as it 
was introduced in the Senate Finance Committee and, then, passing the 
Senate. This group found that the plan would increase the size of the 
economy by 3.7 percent. That is the same range, between 3 and 5 
percent, but more specifically, 3.7 percent.
  Then, there was a fourth analysis by one more group of nine respected 
independent economists. This group wrote about their conclusions in a 
letter to the Treasury Secretary on November 26. They wrote that they 
expect this tax relief plan to boost the economy by 3 percent over the 
next 10 years.
  We have four different entities, four different estimates, four 
different groups of prominent economists. They looked at the tax relief 
plan. They looked at it in different ways and used different analyses, 
and they all found that it would grow the American economy by very 
similar amounts, all by at least 3 percent.
  There was one other study that some people have been talking about. 
This was an estimate by a group called the Joint Committee on Taxation. 
This group predicts that growth under the Republican plan will 
increase, but by just 0.8 percent over those next 10 years. That works 
out, roughly, to eight one-hundredths of 1 percent a year. All of these 
other groups say at least 3 percent, maybe 5 percent, and this other 
group says less than 1 percent over a decade. It is hard to believe.
  Why is this one group, which is being quoted often by the Democrats, 
so far out of line, out of the mainstream, with what other economists 
are saying? The reason they reached such a different conclusion is that 
they did their analysis very differently from all the other groups. 
This committee combines a few different economic models into their 
estimate. That is reasonable. When we look closely at the models they 
combined, we found that they counted the most pessimistic models much 
more heavily than they did the more realistic models. So, of course, 
they are going to come up with an overly pessimistic conclusion.
  I think it can be useful to take these more negative views into 
account. Nobody thinks we should just pick from the rosiest scenario or 
base our policies on one prediction. That is not what is happening 
here. We have four different groups of economists that predict strong 
economic growth of at least 3 percent. The one outlier is much more 
pessimistic, much more cautious.
  Another thing to remember is that even this very cautious estimate 
says that the economy will get bigger because of the Republican plan 
than if we did nothing at all. Even the pessimistic group is saying: 
Oh, yes, the economy will grow under the Republican plan. They say it 
will reduce deficits by an additional $400 billion over the next 10 
years.
  I think we are going to do a whole lot better than that because our 
economy is going to grow much faster. Under President Obama and 
Washington Democrats, we had 8 years of policies that held back our 
economy and caused it to grow at a very tepid, slow pace. Economists 
looked at these policies, and they said that if things continue on that 
path, we can expect the economy to grow by about the 1.8 percent we 
have been seeing through the Obama administration.
  With Republicans setting the agenda, those policies are history and 
so is this slow economic growth that had been created during the Obama 
years. Look what just happened in the last two economic quarters of 
this year. Over these 6 months, our economy grew at a pace of more than 
3 percent. The economy has created more than 2 million jobs since 
President Trump was elected a little over a year ago. The economy is 
responding--responding to policies that Republicans have been talking 
about and to what we have been doing in terms of eliminating so many 
punishing, burdensome, expensive regulations that have caused such a 
drag on our economy.
  When we pass legislation like this tax relief act, it will give 
businesses confidence that we are keeping our promises. It gives them 
confidence that they can keep hiring, keep investing, and keep creating 
more jobs.
  Take a look at the fact that there are 2 million more new jobs since 
election day of last year. Someone said: Oh, no, you have to wait until 
Inauguration Day to start counting. I disagree. I will tell you that in 
my home State of Wyoming, on election night, when the results were in 
and it was known that Donald Trump had been elected President of the 
United States, there was immediate optimism, immediate confidence, and 
an immediate positive spring in people's steps. The decision at that 
point by the American electorate said: Yes, it is time for this economy 
to take off. And it has.
  When someone comes out with an estimate about economic growth and 
they don't take into account all of these different things, I think, 
maybe, they are living in the past, when they were looking at an 
economic growth model of 1.8 percent. I think, maybe, they got so used 
to the anemic growth we had in the Obama years that they are still 
expecting that to continue into the future. They are not taking into 
account that things are different now, that Republicans are passing our 
economic plans, and that the burdensome regulations and the redtape has 
been cut. They are not taking into account that President Trump is in 
the White House.
  Those things make a very big difference when it comes to sustaining 
this progress that we have seen over the past year. Four out of five 
studies agree that the Republican tax plan will deliver the kind of 
economic growth that the American people want and the American economy 
needs--a strong, healthy, and growing economy.
  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.
  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.