[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 63 (Thursday, April 11, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2407-S2409]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Tax Reform

  Mr. President, before I yield the floor, I do want to spend a few 
minutes

[[Page S2408]]

talking about what is an obvious day in our near future--tax day. 
Americans from coast to coast are thrilled with the opportunity to 
finish their taxes. I say that with the poorest tongue in cheek. I will 
say that without any question I am excited about this tax season 
because of the success of our tax reform in December 2017. It is 
exciting to think about the benefits to so many families throughout 
this country because of the successful passage of the tax reform bill 
in December 2017.

  I stood on the floor and listened to other speakers talk about how 
perhaps the tax reform package has not delivered consistent with the 
promises made during the debate. I would like to put some meat on those 
bones as well.
  When you think about the average family who has kids, the doubling of 
the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000 and allowing for more 
refundability to happen because of the child tax credit being 
increased, more families today are healthier because of the doubling of 
the child tax credit, which is good news. When you think about the size 
of the refund, $2,873 is, in fact, consistent with the refunds of years 
gone by, which, once again, reinforces the fact that the tax reform 
bill has presented itself in a positive way and produced results 
consistent with what we suggested. Because if you get the same refund 
you had last time--about--but you have more money in your take-home pay 
every payday during 2018, you actually can measure the success of the 
tax reform by looking at how many dollars you had in your paycheck in 
2018 versus 2017, even if your employer did not give you a raise. So 
the success of our package is without question.
  I would like to suggest that as you think about folks like me, and 
perhaps others in this body who were raised by single parents, a single 
mom in 2018 with two children did not have a Federal tax burden at all 
until her income hit over $54,000. That is important, and it is 
powerful for a specific reason. The average single mother makes around 
$40,000 a year, not $54,000. That means that for the average single 
mother in America, because of the success of our tax reform package, 
her Federal tax burden is down to zero. That is not just good news, 
that is great news. I know it personally because of a single mother who 
worked 16 hours a day trying to keep food on the table. Having doubled 
the child tax credit and having lowered her taxes by doubling the 
standard deduction from $9,300 to $18,000, what we see for the single 
mom is hope and a light at the end of the tunnel that is not a train. 
This is good news.
  Not only is it good news, but some have talked about our plan--we 
have defaulted on our mission to help the American people. I suggest 
that as opposed to defaulting on our mission, what we heard from others 
is that they are deflated because of the success of our mission. During 
the previous administration, GDP growth averaged somewhere around 2 
percent. In 2018, we saw a 3.1-percent GDP growth. What does that mean 
for the average person? What it means for the average person is that 
for the first time in a long time, more than a decade, we saw their 
wages grow over 3 percent. So not only did their wages grow over 3 
percent, but, more importantly, they had more jobs--actually, not just 
more jobs. This is really good news. They had more jobs. So many more 
jobs are open today than people looking for work. In other words, if 
you think about the number of folks looking for work, the number of 
openings exceeds that number. That is a transformation in this country 
in a way we have very seldom seen or experienced.
  There is even more good news to that. Our unemployment rate is down 
to nearly a 50-year low, 3.8 percent. So if we are asking ourselves 
what these corporations did with the money, we are seeing the evolution 
or the manifestation of what happened with these extra resources by 
seeing the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years. Now, that is not just 
true for America as a whole, it is true for the subgroups within 
America who have been challenged and sometimes excluded from the 
workforce. The African-American unemployment rate is around 7 percent 
over the last 2 years. You have to compare that to, under the previous 
administration, an unemployment rate of around 12 percent. The Hispanic 
unemployment is near 5 percent. You have to compare that to a 50-
percent increase under the previous administration.
  We have seen perhaps the greatest renaissance in our country, 
economically, than we have seen in 20 years, and much of it is due to 
tax reform being passed. Embedded in the tax reform package was my 
signature legislation that I am so excited about, the opportunity zones 
legislation, that is having a transformative impact and effect 
throughout the poorest, most distressed communities in all of our 
country. Somewhere around 8,000 opportunity zones have been designated 
by the Governors in collaboration with the mayors. Mr. President, as a 
former Governor, you understand better than most of us the process by 
which one went through in order to establish the zones and the 
potential of those zones in the most distressed communities in each of 
the States.
  There is good news. The good news is, in places like my home State of 
South Carolina, is a logistics company named DHL that drives those 
little yellow vans that ship some of your packages across the country. 
They are investing $100 million in a distribution and warehouse park, 
creating nearly 500 jobs in Dorchester County, and they have said the 
Federal opportunity zone designation was a factor DHL weighed in making 
this location decision.
  In Washington State, the Vancouver Downtown Redevelopment Authority 
president said: ``It's an absolute no-brainer, and a real gift from the 
federal government and will give us a real shot in the arm in these 
areas''--these challenged, distressed communities.
  In Vegas, the largest opportunity zone expo in the Nation is being 
held next month with some of the biggest names across the country 
trying to figure out how they can reinvest their resources in areas 
where they were unwilling to take a second look, because now the 
incentive is good enough, and we did so without more bureaucrats and 
without government money. These are private-sector dollars being 
deployed in some of the most distressed communities.
  In the Midwest, up to 3,000 jobs are on the way to East Chicago, and 
a local foundation is looking to invest $800 million in a solar farm in 
Flint, MI. There are so many other States with amazing projects that I 
would run out of time talking about those.
  I will close with two thoughts. One is from Mayor Bowser of DC. She 
had a March Madness event for opportunity zones, and she attracted 400-
plus folks who are interested in investing and seeing the results of 
the investments in the local community here in DC.
  For folks on the left and on the right, African Americans, Hispanics, 
Whites, Asians, this is a policy that brings America together. Whether 
you live in the most affluent communities or the most distressed 
communities, Americans are looking at opportunity zones as a way to 
have a conversation with each other. If there is one thing that we all 
would agree upon, it is that America needs to talk a little more with 
each other in a civil way about fairness and opportunity.
  One of the reasons why I started my national opportunity tour is to 
highlight some of the successes--from Miami, with my good friend Marco 
Rubio, to Boston, New Hampshire, and West Virginia, with Senator 
Capito, to Iowa, with Senator Ernst, and Colorado, Arizona, and so many 
other places. I look forward to continuing the conversation and 
distilling the benefits of the opportunity zones over the next few 
months.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I am honored to be cochairing the 
Entrepreneurship Caucus with the Senator from South Carolina. He is 
right that there are some great examples of people who want to get 
businesses started and who want to pursue their dreams, and we need to 
highlight those because we have a lot of people who right now have some 
great new ideas. If we are going to continue to be a country that is an 
incubator for those ideas, then, we have to promote those ideas and 
allow those people to follow their dreams.

[[Page S2409]]