    [Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 6 (Wednesday, January 10, 2018)]
    [Senate]
    [Pages S122-S124]
    From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                                   Tax Reform

      Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, when we were debating the tax relief
    law at the end of last year, it was a very familiar debate in many
    ways.
      Republicans came to the floor with facts and figures on how much
    extra money people were going to see in their pockets and their
    paychecks. Democrats came to the floor with the same old tired line
    that you always hear them talk about--the millionaires and
    billionaires.
      Republicans pointed out economic studies that showed that workers
    right now pay more than 70 percent of the cost of corporate taxes. We
    talked about a study by the Tax Foundation that predicted that if we
    passed the tax relief bill, the average family would actually see a
    gain of about $2,600 a year in their after-tax income. It was partly
    because of getting the tax cut and partly because their employers would
    then pass on much of the tax cut in higher wages. Democrats didn't
    believe it. They said that only rich people would benefit and that
    businesses would never share their tax savings with the workers. The
    Democratic leader said that ``tax cuts like these benefit the wealthy
    and the powerful to the exclusion of the middle class.''
      Here we are. It is the month after we passed the tax relief bill, the
    tax reduction bill, and the tax simplification bill, and the question
    is, Who was right? The very day the tax bill passed in Congress, AT&T
    came out and said it was giving its workers a bonus. It said that
    200,000 hard-working employees were going to get an extra $1,000 each
    directly because of the new tax relief, tax reduction, tax cut bill.
    The Tax Foundation predicted that they would eventually get an extra
    $2,600, and these people are already getting $1,000 each on day one.
      That has opened the floodgates to other companies doing the exact
    same thing and employees around the country experiencing the exact same
    thing. Businesses started sharing the tax savings with rank-and-file,
    middle-class workers, and it started on day one--not just the wealthy
    and the powerful, as Senator Schumer has predicted. Over 120 companies
    have said they are raising wages, giving out bonuses, and investing in
    their workers because of the tax law. It adds up to over $980 million--
    $980 million in the pockets of hard-working men and women around the
    country. How many people are seeing that? By last count, almost 1
    million hard-working Americans--over 970,000 hard-working Americans
    have already gotten the good news.
      There is more good news coming every day, with more announcements
    today. It is exactly what Republicans said would happen. It is
    happening for people who work at banks, who work at insurance
    companies, who work at airlines. It is happening for people who work at
    big companies, such as AT&T, Visa, and Comcast, but it is also
    happening for people who work at smaller companies, such as a winery in
    California and an aviation company in Texas. These are businesses and
    people in communities who are important parts of their communities and
    doing important jobs. The employees work hard, and now they are getting
    a share of the relief the Republicans had predicted they would get all
    along. And they are not just getting cash bonuses. There is a bank in
    Massachusetts called Berkshire Hills Bancorp. They announced last week
    that the people working there will be getting a $1,000 bonus and will
    also see the minimum wage raised to $15 an hour.
      More is being invested in employee development and training programs.
    When you invest more in employee development and training programs,
    that means people are going to have additional skills that make them
    even more productive, better at their jobs, and qualify for even higher
    wages.
      This bank in Massachusetts is also contributing an extra $2 million
    to its charitable efforts, including scholarships. That helps improve
    the communities where the workers live and where they raise their
    families.
      Democrats said it is not going to happen. It has happened. It is
    happening every day. They said that businesses would keep the money for
    themselves. That is not what we are seeing all across the country.
      Ms. Warren, the senior Senator from Massachusetts, went on PBS. The
    senior Senator from Massachusetts said that the idea that tax relief
    would lead to higher wages was, in her words, ``the big lie that
    Republicans have been selling'' for decades. She said that tax relief
    was ``an insult to working families across America.''
      I would point out to Senator Warren that many of the people who work
    at this bank are in her home State of Massachusetts. People have gotten
    wage increases. People have gotten additional money spent on training
    so they can become more valuable and make even more money. People have
    seen the minimum wage in that business go up. The workers getting these
    bonuses and raises in their pay are her constituents. Does she think
    these people are feeling insulted? Does she believe they have been
    insulted by getting a $1,000 bonus and getting an increase in their
    salaries and having investments in terms of additional training? Is
    that an insult to those people? I don't think so. I bet they are
    feeling pretty glad to be supported and valued by their employer.

      There is another business in Nevada, South Point Casino. Workers
    there are receiving $1 million total in bonuses. Previously, this
    business had actually planned to increase the share of health insurance
    costs that its employees would have to pay because health insurance
    costs have gone up.
      Health insurance prices have skyrocketed ever since ObamaCare was
    passed. Companies have struggled with how to deal with these rising
    costs. Many have tried to pass these on to the employees.
      This company in Nevada has said that because of the Republican tax
    relief law, they are canceling their plans to raise insurance costs--
    canceling their plans to raise the costs. That is more money in
    employees' pockets. The owner of the business said: ``We want to be
    sure that our extended family is taken care of.'' That is the way these
    people think of the people who work for them--as part of their extended
    family. That is how employers are responding to tax relief all around
    the country, and that is what we said would happen.
      We also predicted that one way businesses might deal with lower taxes
    would be to cut prices for consumers, let people who use their services
    or buy their products keep more of their hard-earned money. Americans
    are starting to see that prediction come true in the form of lower
    utility bills. Gas, electric, and water utilities across the country
    are getting ready to cut their rates because the taxes are going down
    under the law. Customers of the power company in Baltimore are going to
    receive millions of dollars in the form of lower rates. It has been a
    cold winter on the east coast, and a lower electric bill is going to be
    good news for a lot of people in that area. Customers are also likely
    to see the same thing in Missouri, South Carolina, and Louisiana.
      These are the kinds of effects we are seeing all across the country,
    in various ways. It is all good news for consumers, all good news for
    people at home as a result of the tax reduction, tax relief, tax cuts
    passed by Republicans and signed by President Trump.
      Americans are getting the benefits of tax relief. They are getting
    the benefit of regulatory relief and the pro-growth policies of
    Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration. People are seeing
    it in their daily lives. The polling company Gallup said that as soon
    as Donald Trump was elected President, economic confidence in this
    country soared. That is what the polls found. It has stayed positive
    almost without interruption ever since. It is the exact opposite of
    what polls were showing during the previous 8 years, in the previous
    administration. That was during the so-called economic recovery.
      Why are people so optimistic now? It is because you can't open a
    newspaper or turn on a television without seeing more good news about
    the economy. New employment numbers came out last Friday. CNN had a
    headline: ``U.S.

    [[Page S123]]

    economy added 2 million jobs in 2017.'' The Washington Post's headline
    was ``Trump's first-year jobs numbers were very, very good.'' Bloomberg
    reported that the Christmas shopping season was ``probably the best one
    in a decade.'' People are feeling confident. They are seeing higher
    wages, they are seeing cash bonuses, and soon they will start seeing
    the tax cut in their paychecks.
      The American people know that Republicans have kept our promise. We
    are cutting regulations, cutting taxes, putting more money back in
    their pockets. That is what hard-working Americans have asked us to do,
    and that is what we are going to continue to do.
      I yield the floor.
      I suggest the absence of a quorum.
      The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Tillis). The clerk will call the roll.
      The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
      Mrs. ERNST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
    the quorum call be rescinded.
      The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
      Mrs. ERNST. Mr. President, I rise to discuss the positive impact the
    Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will have on Iowa farmers.
      Of course, our Iowa agricultural economy is really important, and
    those men and women who are serving as farmers, ranchers, and growers
    in the State of Iowa mean the world to me, coming from a farm my family
    had in Southwest Iowa.
      We all understand this has been a very challenging time for farmers
    in our rural communities. The community I come from in Southwest Iowa
    has just 10,000 people in our county. Many of them have faced the
    challenges of the economic downturn. Since their peaks in 2012, corn
    prices have declined by 60 percent and soybean prices have declined by
    47 percent. My neighbors are hurting, folks. Farm income has nearly
    been cut in half since 2013.
      A lot of our producers are hurting, especially our young and
    beginning farmers who have gotten their start just in maybe the last 10
    years or so, but, fortunately for our farmers, our ranchers, and our
    growers, tax relief is on its way. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will
    provide sweeping tax cuts for farmers and rural communities, allowing
    our producers to keep more of those hard-earned dollars.
      About 95 percent of farms are organized as passthrough businesses,
    such as sole proprietorships, partnerships, and S corps. These
    businesses are taxed under individual tax rules and will benefit from
    lower tax rates for every income bracket. On top of that, they will see
    significant relief through a new 20-percent deduction on passthrough
    business income. The law also provides relief from the costly
    individual mandate which forced many farmers to choose between buying
    an expensive ObamaCare plan through their State exchange or being
    fined.

      Now, just a couple of years ago, I remember a very intense
    conversation I had with a beginning farmer in Northeast Iowa. When he
    was purchasing his insurance through the State exchange, the cost had
    more than doubled. He was shaking he was so upset about it, and he
    explained to me the additional cost of that individual policy was his
    truck payment. There was no room in his budget for the additional cost
    of that insurance policy so he had to make that choice: Do I purchase
    through the individual exchange or do I make my truck payment?
    Fortunately, within this bill, we have that relief. He can make that
    choice, and the choice is his on whether he makes that truck payment
    and forgoes the insurance or whether now he can do without that type of
    insurance and not be fined because he was too poor to afford it.
      In addition, the bill dramatically expands section 179 expensing and
    allows 5 years of 100 bonus depreciation. Both of these changes will
    foster much needed investment in farms throughout Iowa.
      The law also preserves a number of important tax provisions for
    farmers, including the interest deduction, cash accounting, and the use
    of like-kind exchanges for property.
      Last, but certainly not least, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act doubles the
    Federal estate tax exemption while preserving the stepped-up basis. The
    death tax can have a devastating impact on family farms. Over 90
    percent of farm assets cannot be sold easily without losing value.
    Especially as we continue to experience a downturn in that ag economy,
    family farmers are sometimes left with no choice but to sell land or
    the equipment they use to farm that land when they are forced to pay
    that tax.
      The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is a big step in the right direction for
    agriculture. I am thankful to the President for his leadership and to
    my colleagues in the Senate and the House for helping get this long-
    needed bill done. On behalf of agriculture, thank you.
      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. BOOZMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
    for the quorum call be rescinded.
      The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
      Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. President, I rise to highlight the positive impacts
    our historic tax reform law will have on the agricultural community.
      Agriculture is Arkansas' largest industry by far, adding $16 billion
    to our economy every year and accounting for approximately one in every
    six jobs. We are the top rice-producing State in the Nation, No. 2 in
    the Nation in broiler chicken production, and the third largest
    producer of catfish in the United States. We could also clothe and
    shelter ourselves from fiber grown in Arkansas, as we are the third in
    the Nation in cotton production and the fifth largest softwood lumber-
    producing State. You could keep going down the list, and you would find
    Arkansas as one of the Nation's top 10 producers of a number of
    agricultural commodities.
      Clearly, ensuring that Washington helps create an economic
    environment that allows the agricultural industry to thrive is
    extremely important to my home State of Arkansas. When President Trump
    signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law, his signature provided much
    needed tax relief to America's farmers. More than 94 percent of farms
    are organized as passthrough businesses, which means they are impacted
    by the same tax provisions as individual filers. Lower tax rates across
    the board and a 20-percent deduction from their taxable income means
    immediate savings, which can be reinvested to help grow their
    operations.
      Ninety seven percent of the farms in Arkansas are family owned, and
    the vast majority of them will now be exempt from the estate tax--the
    death tax. This is a big deal. It will help keep those farms and
    ranches in the family for generations to come.
      Finally, farmers and ranchers will be able to expense 100 percent of
    their capital investments, such as equipment, over the next 4 years. In
    his address to the Farm Bureau earlier this week, the President called
    this the ``sleeper'' in the bill. He is right. People don't realize and
    there hasn't been enough talk about how beneficial this provision will
    be for our family-run agricultural operations. The substance of the
    President's Farm Bureau speech tilted heavily toward our efforts to
    bring stability and predictability to the economy.
      As we have witnessed over the course of the previous administration,
    uncertainty is devastating to our economy. There are few industries
    that are inherently more affected by uncertainty than agriculture. This
    is why we have taken steps to eliminate some of the punitive, needless
    regulations that create uncertainty for our farmers and our ranchers.
      It is also why my colleagues and I on the Agriculture Committee,
    under the steadfast leadership of Chairman Roberts, are working hard to
    reauthorize the farm bill. Programs are authorized by the farm bill
    that are absolutely vital to farmers, ranchers, and consumers. These
    programs will provide more certainty in rural America to address the
    challenges ahead. Finally, it is why we took great care to ensure that
    the agricultural industry will see the benefits of tax reform.
    Establishing a tax code that works for our farmers and ranchers, as
    opposed to against them, is vital to their ability to plan for the
    future and invigorate our rural communities.
      I am proud of our efforts to pass this landmark tax reform law, and I
    am

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    confident it will have lasting, positive effects for our economy.
      With that, I yield back.
      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. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
    for the quorum call be rescinded.
      The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cotton). Without objection, it is so
    ordered.