[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 76 (Thursday, May 10, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2599-S2600]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               TAX REFORM

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, on one final matter, later today, 
President Trump is visiting the great State

[[Page S2600]]

of Indiana. He is joining Hoosiers to celebrate the new jobs and 
prosperity our Republican agenda is delivering to communities in 
Indiana and all over the country. After years of Democratic policies 
that made life harder for job creators, the United States of America is 
officially open for business once again.
  Surveys show that since President Trump and this Republican Congress 
were elected, the percentage of small and independent employers feeling 
confident about expanding their businesses has nearly tripled. The 
amount that employers spend on wages, salaries, and benefits for 
American workers grew more in 2017 than in any calendar year of the 
Obama administration. The number of Americans receiving unemployment 
benefits is the lowest--the lowest--since 1973. Let me say that again. 
The number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits is the lowest 
it has been since 1973. Richard Nixon was in the White House back then. 
Republicans have focused like a laser on getting Washington out of the 
way. More job opportunities, higher pay, and greater prosperity are 
already reaching middle-class Americans.
  My colleague Senator Young has been sharing some of the great news 
that awaits the President when he gets to Indiana. He has heard from 
constituents like Donald from Noblesville. Donald said:

       I don't consider myself rich, but applying next year's tax 
     changes to this year's income, I'll pay over $1,000 less in 
     taxes next year. Everyone benefits with the new tax cuts.

  A Bloomington resident named Cathy said this about her husband's tax 
reform bonus:

       We have never had this happen. It was much appreciated.

  First Farmers Bank & Trust is raising wages, writing employee bonus 
checks, and investing more in development for the communities it 
serves, with 34 branches all across Indiana.
  There are stories like these being written all over the country--
largely because Republicans rolled back job-killing regulations and cut 
taxes significantly for working families and for small businesses.
  Oddly, our Democratic colleagues can't bring themselves to admit this 
is a good thing. Even when the facts show our growing economy is making 
life better for middle-class Americans, they try to shrug off the facts 
and fall back on the same old class warfare rhetoric. Even when people 
like Donald and Cathy explain how tax reform is helping them, Democrats 
scoff at their household finances, saying multi-thousand-dollar tax 
cuts are just ``crumbs.''
  Crumbs? Maybe in New York or San Francisco, but in Kentucky, where I 
come from, working families don't see their tax cuts, bonuses, and pay 
raises as crumbs. I have a hunch it is the same in Indiana.
  It is curious that only one of Indiana's Senators voted to give 
Hoosiers these tax cuts and these new job opportunities. Indiana's 
senior Senator voted in lockstep with Democratic leaders to block tax 
reform from ever taking effect. Instead of working with Republicans and 
the President to keep the new prosperity coming, he and his colleagues 
have chosen to obstruct and resist on nearly every subject.
  Just the other day, the Democratic leader in the House declared she 
plans to campaign on repealing the tax reform--that is, the Democratic 
leader in the U.S. House--campaign on repealing the tax reform. Tax 
cuts versus tax hikes, that is about as clear a contrast as you can 
imagine. Fortunately, for Hoosiers, Kentuckians, and all the other 
communities that are finally growing again after years of atrophy, 
Republicans will defend the American people's tax cuts and defend their 
new jobs.

                          ____________________