[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 198 (Wednesday, December 11, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S6975]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Tax Cut and Jobs Act

  Mr. BRAUN. Mr. President, it has been almost a year since I was sworn 
in. I thought it was a good time to kind of reminisce a little bit 
about the first year of being a U.S. Senator from Indiana. I want to 
cite that, when you come from a place like Indiana, it is where America 
really works. Think about it. We still believe in balanced budgets. We 
have rainy day funds. We take on big issues and talk about how we are 
going to pay for it, not borrow the money, throw it on the backs of our 
kids and grandkids.
  So, in being here now nearly a year, I want to reminisce back to what 
motivated me to stick my neck out and do it in the first place. I saw 
in November of 2016 that it looked like we might have a different 
dynamic here in our U.S. Government. I look back and see, in December 
of 2017, a Main Street entrepreneur, someone who has always lived by 
those rules of stick your neck out, take a risk. You don't really 
exceed mediocrity unless you do things that push the envelope a little 
bit now and then, but do it in the context of where it is sustainable.
  I noticed, in December of 2017, we finally got some legislation 
across the finish line that rewards enterprisers, rewards Main Street 
USA. That was in the Tax Cut and Jobs Act passed then. I did not know 
how it was going to unfold. Of course, even our CBO said it was going 
to end up costing the government, not rewarding it through more 
enterprise, greater revenues. Well, we have now got some evidence from 
it. We have got the hottest economy that we have had in modern history, 
and, yes, we are raising record revenues, despite having lower tax 
rates.
  Well, that sounds like the math wouldn't work out. Well, there is a 
point, especially in small business on Main Street, that you will not 
keep enterprising, you will not work hard if you end up having to send 
too much to a place like this that over the years did not, to me, look 
like it was delivering good value. So we have been vindicated; it is 
working.