[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 152 (Wednesday, September 12, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6122-S6124]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    Nomination of Charles P. Rettig

  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I rise today to oppose President Trump's 
nominee for Commissioner of the IRS, Mr. Charles Rettig. Now more than 
ever, the American people need government officials who are willing to 
stand up and speak truth to power. Unfortunately, Mr. Rettig failed to 
convince me that he is up for that part of the job.
  During his time before the Senate Finance Committee, on which I 
serve, Mr. Rettig gave me no indication that he would protect New 
Jerseyans facing the threat of double taxation under the tax bill 
passed by this Congress and signed into law by President Trump late 
last year, nor did Mr. Rettig express any respect for the rights of 
States to administer their own constitutionally upheld charitable 
contribution tax credit programs. Instead, Mr. Rettig left me all but 
certain that he would be a rubberstamp for this administration's 
politically motivated tax policies and would allow a backdoor tax 
increase on countless middle-class families. At a time when we need 
independence and impartiality at the IRS, that is absolutely 
unacceptable.

[[Page S6123]]

  As we speak, the Treasury Department and the IRS are trying to make 
sense of the deficit-exploding corporate tax cuts rushed through 
Congress by the Republican majority last December--tax cuts that, 
according to the Congressional Budget Office, will drive us toward 
trillion-dollar annual deficits by 2020 and by undermining the 
Affordable Care Act, eventually will strip 13 million Americans of 
their healthcare coverage.
  As the IRS attempts to implement these misguided policies, 
corporations are pulling every string to rig the Tax Code in their 
favor. Apparently, it wasn't enough for them to get a massive trillion-
dollar tax windfall from President Trump. So now they are amassing 
armies of accountants and legions of lobbyists to get even more out of 
the IRS. That is why drug companies are rushing to reclassify their 
cash stocked overseas as assets so they can pay a fraction of what they 
would otherwise owe. That is why oil companies are drilling into the 
law to find new loopholes in the way we tax foreign profits. CEOs want 
no stone left unturned, no loophole left unopened.

  But there is one group that is not getting any special access or 
sweetheart deals, and that is middle-class families like those in my 
home State of New Jersey. I have said before and I will say again that 
the Trump tax bill was one giant hit job on New Jersey's middle class 
and that of States similarly situated.
  You would think that with $1.5 trillion in tax cuts, Republicans 
could have cut taxes for everyone. Yet, under the Trump tax plan, 40 
percent of New Jersey taxpayers will either face an average tax 
increase of $2,100 or get no tax cut at all. That is because 
Republicans gutted the State and local tax deduction, which 1.8 million 
homeowners across my State alone depend on to avoid being taxed twice 
on the same money. These people aren't high rollers. They weren't born 
into multimillion dollar trust funds. They are middle-class families 
who work hard for everything they have.
  As you can see, 83 percent of New Jerseyans who deduct their property 
taxes make under $200,000 a year. Nationwide, half of all taxpayers who 
claim these deductions make under $100,000. In New Jersey, the average 
deduction totals about $18,000 per filer--far above the arbitrary cap 
imposed by Donald Trump and his corporate-sponsored Republican 
Congress. It means the average New Jersey taxpayer who itemizes their 
returns could lose $8,000 in deductions this year alone.
  Even the President's own top economic adviser agrees. Larry Kudlow 
made this quote before he was Director of the National Economic 
Council, which means the quote is really clear and unvarnished in its 
truthfulness. He said:

       When you end the state and local deduction, because rates 
     are still relatively high, you are going to hurt a lot of 
     different people. So the internal logic was not good and this 
     is not a true tax-reform bill.

  Only in Washington could Republicans borrow $2 trillion from China to 
cut taxes for big corporations and still need to hike taxes on New 
Jersey families and families like New Jersey families in other States 
in order to pay for it. That is exactly what Republicans did by capping 
the State and local tax deduction and hitting our middle class with an 
even higher property tax burden.
  But we New Jerseyans aren't known for being pushovers. That is why, 
last December, several mayors across our State allowed homeowners to 
prepay their 2018 property taxes before Trump's harmful policies took 
effect in January. That is why, back in May, I proudly joined Governor 
Phil Murphy as he signed a new law to shield homeowners from higher 
property tax burdens.
  Under this program, homeowners who contribute to a State-approved 
charity may receive a property tax credit worth up to 85 percent of 
those donations. In this regard, New Jersey didn't reinvent the wheel 
with this new law. It was modeled after existing tax credit programs on 
the books for at least 32 other States. All of those here in red offer 
tax credits to residents who contribute to certain charities.
  In our case, we are not shielding families from higher property tax 
bills but making sure New Jersey has the resources needed to keep cops 
on the beat, firefighters on the job, and New Jersey schools on the 
cutting edge.
  The IRS has consistently respected these programs. Back in 2011, the 
Chief Counsel of the IRS released an advisory memo clarifying that 
State tax credits do not--I repeat--do not prohibit taxpayers from 
writing off the full value of their charitable donations from their 
Federal taxes. In other words, getting a tax credit doesn't mean you 
made more money, and thus you shouldn't be taxed more as a result. That 
is what is happening across the land in all of these 32 States.
  It is not just the IRS that upheld these programs. This issue has 
gone before the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court ruled that 
these tax credits are not considered things of value but rather amount 
to ``the government declin[ing] to impose a tax.''
  So let's review. The IRS never had a problem with the 32 other States 
who had charitable deduction tax credit programs on the books--never. 
The IRS never had a problem; that is, until New Jersey and States like 
New Jersey decided to create one--until New Jersey and similar States 
decided to create one. As soon as New Jersey and other States 
established this perfectly legal tax credit program, the IRS suddenly 
decided to reverse course. All of a sudden, they are willing to go to 
court over this and challenge a well-established precedent.
  Apparently, the Trump administration is so intent on sticking it to 
New Jersey and States like New Jersey that they are willing to 
jeopardize all of these programs in all of these States--all of them, 
all of them.
  Let me give a few examples of these programs that will be endangered 
if Mr. Rettig fails to stand up for the rights of States. In Alabama, 
there is a program that offers families a 100-percent tax credit for 
contributing to private school scholarship funds. In Missouri, there 
are several very worthy programs that offer tax credits for 
contributions--one for shelters for domestic abuse survivors, another 
for donations for campuses focused on the STEM fields. There are tax 
credits for donating to State colleges in Indiana, water conservation 
in Colorado, and public road construction in Arkansas. There are 
similar programs in Missouri, Kansas, and Georgia.
  I could go on and on, but here is the bottom line: At least 30 State 
tax credit programs are now in jeopardy because the Trump 
administration changed the rules in the middle of the game--changed 
their previous counsel's decision, changed course from what the Supreme 
Court said.
  I have heard a lot of lip service from my colleagues about States' 
rights over the years. They are all about States' rights--until it 
comes to States like New Jersey and their rights.
  Some say that President Trump and the Republican Congress capped the 
property tax deduction because they have it out for so-called blue 
States. But at the end of the day, the States most affected by this 
foolish policy aren't red States or blue States; they are America's 
blue-chip States, America's innovation States, America's economic 
powerhouse States.
  New Jersey didn't become an economic powerhouse by accident. Our 
success wasn't born overnight. It is the result of the priorities we 
set and the investments we make.
  Take it from Kathryn, a constituent of mine from New Jersey. She 
wrote to me after she saw what happened with the tax bill:

       My husband and I pay nearly $13,000 a year in property 
     taxes to the town of Oradell. For this, we receive excellent 
     services and have reputable public schools. I pay taxes to 
     the state of NJ which support our infrastructure, other 
     cities, and necessary programs.
       I am fine paying what I already pay. That being said, I 
     feel very strongly that it is unacceptable to be taxed on 
     taxes that I already pay.

  Kathryn is right. She is right. It is no coincidence that New Jersey 
claims more in State and local tax deductions than other States in the 
Nation and also has some of the best schools in the Nation. We pay for 
them. Yet, with the Trump tax scam, Republicans want us to pay for them 
twice.
  The Federal income tax system has historically allowed taxpayers to 
deduct the taxes they pay at the local level. This is one of the 
longest standing deductions in the Nation's history--to deduct from 
their Federal returns--and for good reasons. States

[[Page S6124]]

that invest in education, infrastructure, and opportunity for all have 
higher per capita incomes, enjoy more prosperity, and rely less on 
Federal handouts. These are the types of investments that make New 
Jersey a great place to live, work, and raise a family.
  You don't have to take my word for it. Earlier this year, Save the 
Children named New Jersey the No. 1 place in America to raise a child. 
I want it to stay that way.
  In New Jersey, we invest in public schools because we know that they 
prepare students to compete in high-paying fields like biotechnology, 
sustainable agriculture, and medicine. In New Jersey, we invest in 
public health and law enforcement because we know we are all better off 
when our streets are safe and our families are healthy. In New Jersey, 
we invest in mass transit and infrastructure because we know it 
connects workers with opportunities to climb the income ladder.
  We do these things for a reason. New Jersey is stronger when we open 
the doors of opportunity for as many people as possible. We see it 
here: State investments, better education, higher wages, a stronger 
middle class, top three States by SALT deduction. They also do 
incredibly well in educational achievement and income. There is a clear 
correlation.
  But the Republican Congress has put these job-creating, economy-
growing, opportunity-expanding investments in the crosshairs by gutting 
the property tax deduction. In the process, they are threatening the 
validity of legitimate programs operating in 30 other States.
  The Federal Tax Code has always worked to ensure that Americans don't 
pay taxes twice on their hard-earned money; that was until Donald Trump 
came along. Then Republicans abandoned their so-called fiscal 
conservatism, and together they passed a tax scam that subjects 
hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans, and many more in other States, 
to double taxation.
  For as long as I can remember, I have heard my Republican colleagues 
preach about protecting, not punishing, success. But the Republican tax 
law is a tax on New Jersey's success, slamming hundreds of thousands of 
families with higher property tax burdens, not in a few years, not in a 
decade--no, right now--now. It is not fair, and it is not right. It is 
wrong to force New Jersey families to pay more just so that big 
corporations and wealthy CEOs can pay less.
  In the end, I can't in good conscience support this nominee. He will 
not protect New Jersey's middle class--and those in other States like 
it--from higher property tax bills. He will not respect perfectly legal 
State-based programs like those 32 other States that offer tax credits 
in return for contributions to nonprofits that do critical work in 
their communities. He will be nothing more than a Republican 
rubberstamp for President Trump's politically motivated tax policies. 
The last thing we need is an IRS that is politically weaponized.
  Whether you want to take a stand against double taxation or you don't 
agree with the Trump administration's politically motivated assault on 
the rights of States to set their own tax policies, I hope Republicans 
and Democrats alike will join me in voting down this nomination. 
Taxpayers in New Jersey and across the Nation deserve better than tax 
policies that knock the knees out from underneath them and an IRS 
Commissioner who kicks them while they are down.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.
  Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, I intend to address the Senate on the 
topic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but I want to observe that the 
distinguished leader may be coming in just a moment for a unanimous 
consent request. If he does, I will be happy to yield during the middle 
of my remarks so he can take care of that item of business.