[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
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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.
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