[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 104 (Wednesday, June 14, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S2080]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Tax Reform

  Mr. President, on the Republican tax plan, yesterday, the Republican-
led House Ways and Means Committee advanced a sweeping array of new tax 
giveaways that reward the wealthy and well connected and leave ordinary 
families out to dry.

  With this latest GOP tax scam, Republicans are showing exactly where 
their priorities lie: with large corporations, Big Oil polluters, and 
ultrahigh-earning households.
  After the Trump tax law blew a nearly $2 trillion hole in our 
national deficit, this new Republican proposal would increase the 
deficit by another trillion dollars.
  This hypocrisy is just astounding. Three weeks ago, we were hearing: 
Well, we have got to reduce the deficit. Debt is our big problem. We 
should even default before we would deal with that problem.
  And now, all of a sudden, they pass a bill that increases the deficit 
by another trillion dollars. The hypocrisy of that is bouncing around 
the walls here. How do they look themselves in the mirror? How do they 
look themselves in the mirror by bringing us to the brink of default 
because they wanted the deficit down and debt down, and now they 
increase it by a trillion dollars simply to help their ultrarich 
friends and the biggest, wealthiest corporations that don't pay a fair 
share of taxes? Republicans push our country to the brink of default in 
the name of fiscal responsibility and deficit reduction, but now the 
same Republicans want to blow a trillion-dollar hole into the deficit 
without so much as batting an eye.
  Do you know what it shows you? That those Republicans--not all, but 
them--it shows you they really don't care about the deficit. They 
simply resent the idea of making the ultra ultrawealthy and the biggest 
corporations pay their fair share.
  The Republicans' latest scam is also bad news for anyone who worries 
about protecting our planet for future generations. Their proposal 
would gut billions in clean energy investments that are already 
creating millions of good-paying green jobs.
  Our Inflation Reduction Act has helped to create over 142,000 new--
new--good-paying jobs, and more are coming--many more--in the next few 
years. But Republicans now want to gut those investments completely.
  Why? Big Oil. Big Oil. They get a $10 billion tax break under the 
Republican plan. And we all know that the Republican Party in the House 
and in the Senate is under the thumb of Big Oil.
  So it is clear that this latest GOP tax scam is more of the same: 
giveaways to large corporations, giveaways to Big Oil, and another 
massive hole in the deficit.