[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 136 (Thursday, August 16, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S5672]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               TAX REFORM

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on one final matter, Members were back 
in our home States meeting with constituents last week. I had the 
opportunity to visit a remarkable business in my hometown of 
Louisville.
  Caldwell Tanks has been making large industrial and water storage 
tanks in Kentucky for over 100 years. It is no secret that they do good 
business, but when I stopped by on Friday, they had some especially 
good news to share. In 2018 they invested $100,000 in upgrades to their 
fleet of cranes. Their 150 Kentucky employees, along with hundreds more 
in other States, are seeing estimated wage increases of up to 10 
percent or more. Preload, Caldwell's sister company, which makes 
prestressed concrete tanks, has invested $500,000 in new manufacturing 
equipment.
  The company's leadership states that all of these improvements--every 
one of them--are direct results of the historic tax reform this 
Republican Congress passed last year.
  Tax reform, along with all of our other pro-growth policies, has 
helped to transform the overall business climate in our country. In the 
words of Bernie Fineman, Caldwell's CEO, ``the most important thing 
that it's done is to provide hope''--hope--``for our future.''
  So while these developments alone are remarkable, the conditions that 
made them possible are not a fluke--not in a State that has recently 
seen its unemployment rate drop to a 42-year low, not in a country 
where the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits is about 
as low as it has been in half a century.
  Tax reform and regulatory reform helped to make this happen. They 
helped to unleash free enterprise and give Caldwell's customers the 
confidence to fill up the warehouse's backlogs and drive up 2018 sales 
by 14 percent so far.
  Caldwell is just one case study in what has become a national 
phenomenon. Nationwide, consumers are experiencing renewed confidence. 
Retail sales are up 6.4 percent from July of last year. According to 
one industry survey, a majority of U.S. manufacturers say this 
favorable policy climate has been more likely--more likely--to raise 
wages for their workers.
  Bustling warehouses and rising wages weren't exactly what our 
Democratic colleagues predicted when they railed against tax reform 
last year or voted in lockstep to oppose its passage, but one would 
hope that hindsight is helping our Democratic colleagues to see how tax 
reform and regulatory relief were exactly what the doctor ordered and 
how they have contributed to a healthy economy that is paying dividends 
for American workers and middle-class families.
  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. HELLER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Hyde-Smith). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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