[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 38 (Monday, March 5, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1329-S1330]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Tax Reform

  Mr. President, I would like to shift gears for a moment and discuss a 
matter that my friends back home in Texas are talking about a lot, and 
that is the benefits of tax reform.
  I happened to walk out here just as the Democratic leader, the 
Senator from New York, was saying that tax reform is not working. Well, 
I note that his message seems to be a little out of sync with the news, 
which in part reported today that the number of Americans applying for 
unemployment benefits is at its lowest level in more than 49 years. In 
other words, our economy is finally growing again, and it is working 
again for the people who needed the jobs and needed the income that are 
provided by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
  Sometimes I wonder whether our Democratic friends, who took great 
political risk by voting uniformly to a person to oppose the Tax Cuts 
and Jobs Act, are worried not that it will not work but that it will 
work and they will be proved completely wrong in anticipating what the 
impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will be. In particular, Ms. Pelosi, 
the minority leader of the House, said that these were crumbs--crumbs. 
Well, I think she will be proved wrong, and that will be to the great 
benefit of all of the people of America.
  So everyone remembers, this was not an easy lift. We passed the first 
tax reform in more than 30 years. The immediate consequences of the 
bill have been transformative. In other words, we just did this in 
December, but we have already seen encouraging signs.
  My constituents in Texas know as well as anyone--just ask a man by 
the name of Scott McDonald, who called my office last week. Scott owns 
a residential roofing company in Burleson, which is near Dallas. It is 
called F-Wave, and its mission is to ``create the best [roofing] 
shingle the world has ever seen. Period.'' That is Scott's dream. Do 
you know what Scott told us over the phone? He said that his 47 
employees are really feeling the positive impact in their paychecks. He 
said: ``There are a lot of happy people around here.''
  People are happy because of the reduced tax rates. Now that the IRS 
has updated its withholding tables, in February people saw the first 
boost in their take-home pay they have seen in a long, long time.
  Scott also said that the positive climate has created a lot of 
incentive for

[[Page S1330]]

his company to invest and grow. If you think about it, looking at what 
has happened in the stock market and, more importantly, what it has 
done to 401(k)s and pension plans and people's savings, there is a lot 
of enthusiasm and newfound confidence in the American economy, and that 
is an unequivocally good thing. Scott sees that in his place of 
business. He said that it has created a lot of incentive for his 
company to invest and grow, and that is good for the people who will 
benefit from those jobs. He is looking to hand out bonuses when the 
company's fiscal year ends at the end of this month, and he is hoping 
that a new facility his company is building will create jobs for as 
many as 500 people. You heard me right earlier. He said 47 people work 
there now, and he is hoping that this new facility will create jobs for 
as many as 500 people.
  Scott, we appreciate your story, and we are glad you took the time to 
share it.
  Back home in Texas, we are trying to keep track of all the tax reform 
successes, but there are so many, sometimes it is hard to keep up.
  In West Texas, El Paso Electric has just announced that homeowners 
will get new refunds on their electric bills due to the lower tax rate. 
Seniors, people on fixed incomes, will actually see their utility bills 
go down because of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. What great news.
  In Helotes, which is right outside of San Antonio, my friend, 
Representative Will Hurd, who represents that area, tells us that Jeff 
and Mary Marsh, the owners of two coffee shops, are particularly 
thrilled. They are passing along the tax savings directly to their 
staff of 11 employees in the form of increased hourly wages, benefits 
packages, and bonus programs. They hope to upgrade their systems and 
equipment and expand with new locations too.
  Stories like these sure don't sound like ``Armageddon.'' That is the 
term House Minority Leader Pelosi used to describe the tax reforms last 
year, in addition to calling them ``crumbs.'' She called them 
``Armageddon'' and ``crumbs.'' Well, I am not sure how those two go 
together, but she and other Democrats did their dead-level best to 
scare the living daylights out of the American people and to tell them 
that this would not work and that it would actually hurt them.
  I heard the Democratic leader, my friend from New York, Senator 
Schumer, out here talking about how money that is being brought back 
from overseas isn't being invested properly here in the United States, 
as if it were the government's money. The whole point is that this is 
not the government's money, this is money earned by the people and the 
businesses that take the risks and that we need to succeed so that our 
country will succeed and we will continue to grow so that the American 
dream can remain alive.
  It is almost as if they think that any money saved as a result of the 
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is somehow stolen from the clutches of the 
Federal Government that knows how to spend that money better than they 
do. Well, I certainly have a different view.
  I guess, though, our Democratic colleagues were not totally off base 
in mentioning Armageddon because the tax cuts did spell doom for 
progressive rationales and excuses for not cutting taxes and making our 
system more competitive globally. It really was Armageddon when you 
consider what it did to their outrageous arguments.
  Our reforms have exploded the notion that the only way government can 
ensure prosperity is with higher taxes. Again, it is based on this 
crazy idea that the money you earn is not really yours to keep, it is 
the Federal Government's, and the government will only let you keep a 
certain amount of it, and that when we cut taxes, it actually somehow 
is not money that is yours in the first place. It seems like it is 
completely reverse logic.
  The bill's well-documented effects have killed the ludicrous claims 
we heard before Christmas that Americans who faced stagnant wages for 
years wouldn't really benefit from the raises or that companies are 
incapable or unwilling to actually give those raises or invest in their 
businesses and create new jobs. I wonder what the critics have to say 
about all this now. They have mostly been quiet since the good news 
started rolling in--although I guess, listening to my friend from New 
York, they have not given up entirely.
  I wonder what they have to say to organizations like the Health Care 
Service Corporation, which operates Blue Cross Blue Shield in my State. 
Thanks to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, it has announced a $1.5 billion 
initiative to make health insurance more affordable. This $1.5 billion 
initiative to make health insurance more affordable comes as more good 
news to men and women like those in my State who have struggled to pay 
for healthcare.
  I wonder what the naysayers have to say to this one lady in 
particular. I am thinking about somebody from Lewisville, TX. She 
recently contacted me and preferred not to be identified. Originally in 
my remarks, I was going to mention her name, but out of respect for her 
privacy, let me just tell her story and leave her name out of it. She 
had surgery a while back and had to borrow money up front to pay for 
it. On top of her student loans, this stressed her out. She was pretty 
anxious. She was wondering: How am I going to pay these bills? Well, in 
her note that she sent to my office, she said that she is extremely 
grateful for the reduced taxes because now she brings home an 
additional $125 in each paycheck--$125. That $125 helps her pay the 
bills she was so worried about.
  I hope our friends across the aisle who opposed this bill uniformly--
every single one of them voted against it--I hope they will listen not 
to our claims but, rather, to the evidence and realize that this $125 
to this woman from Lewisville, TX, is not crumbs; it is the difference 
between living in fear that she will not be able to meet her 
obligations and living in peace knowing that she is going to be able to 
meet those responsibilities. Her story is America's story, too, and it 
is a snapshot of what is occurring in the economy.
  Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said last week that ``some of 
the headwinds the U.S. economy faced in previous years have [now] 
turned into tailwinds.'' The economy continues to pick up steam.
  I have already mentioned that the number of people making 
unemployment claims is at its lowest level in the last 49 years, but 
when you look at consumer confidence, when you look at the stock 
market, when you look at businesses willing to invest in new plants and 
equipment and you see the benefits of employers competing for labor--
you know, one of the benefits of seeing unemployment so low and the 
economy growing again is that employers are going to have to start 
bidding up for the workers they need in order to do the job. What that 
means is that wages, which have been stagnant for so many years, are 
now going to grow again. So in addition to the lower rates, people will 
have more take-home pay. They are going to see more take-home pay in 
addition because of the increased wages they are going to be able to 
demand for their hard work.
  These are great and positive signs, but we have to keep telling the 
good stories because they so often get drowned out by the scare tactics 
and the hyperbole that comes from those who seem to be afraid--not that 
this will not work but, rather, that it will work and they will be 
proved terribly wrong.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Ernst). The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. NELSON. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.