[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 35 (Tuesday, February 27, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1224-S1225]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Republican Tax Bill

  Mr. President, finally, a word on the Republican tax bill. When 
President Trump and congressional Republicans were trying to sell their 
tax bill, all we heard about was how it is going to be a boon to 
workers, stimulate investments in new factories, raise wages, and 
create jobs. It is a few months after the tax bill, and the promises 
have not been backed up by the evidence.
  Now the evidence is flowing in that corporations are spending the 
lion's share of the benefits they reap on the tax bill not on workers 
but on goosing their own stock.
  A headline from Monday's New York Times states ``Trump's Tax Cuts in 
Hand, Companies Spend More on Themselves Than on Wages.'' The article 
goes on to document how the Republican tax bill has unleashed a wave of 
share buybacks and stock repurchasing programs, things which help out 
rich executives and shareholders but don't accomplish much for everyday 
American workers. If you are a CEO of a company, you are judged by 
whether your stock is going up. The quickest hit on that is to buy back 
your shares, reduce the number. It doesn't help your workers, it 
doesn't help American productivity, but it helps your bottom line, Mr. 
CEO.
  That is so wrong, that we passed a huge tax bill and put ourselves in 
deep debt so that much of the money can go to corporate executives--not 
improving the actual performance of their companies but just raising 
the value of their stock by buybacks. That is so wrong.
  The article in the New York Times documents how the Republican tax 
bill has unleashed this wave of share buybacks and stock repurchasing 
programs, which, as I said, helps out rich executives and shareholders 
but doesn't accomplish much for everyday workers.
  Rather than investing in new equipment and research, raising wages, 
providing better benefits, and raising productivity, which we are so 
short of here

[[Page S1225]]

in America right now, corporate America is using the Trump tax cut to 
give itself a raise.
  At Morgan Stanley--hardly a leftwing company--the analysts surveyed a 
bunch of companies, and the companies surveyed said that they would 
pass only 13 percent of the Trump tax cut savings on to workers, 
compared to the 43 percent that go to share buybacks. For 
manufacturers--we all care about manufacturing--it is even worse. They 
expect 9 percent to go to workers and 47 percent to go to share 
buybacks.
  Republicans made a conscious decision to give corporations and the 
wealthiest Americans the lion's share of the tax cuts and promised it 
would trickle down to everybody else. Unfortunately, trickle-down never 
works. Corporate America is doing what is best for corporate America, 
and working America is getting left behind.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The assistant Democratic leader.