[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 112 (Saturday, June 28, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3605-S3607]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I was here in 2017, when we passed the
original Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and what ensued was, perhaps, the
greatest amount of economic growth and the greatest reduction of
unemployment among all sorts of folks who historically have suffered
high unemployment rates. In short, our economy was booming.
Originally, we had some debates about whether or not this would have
a static effect. In other words, when you start adding the numbers up,
do you account for economic growth and the stimulative effect of the
bill? As it turns out, the $1.5 trillion deficit in the original bill
was met by economic growth because we brought back money that had been
invested abroad, because of high tax rates here, and a variety of other
measures which made our economy boom again.
One point that I want to make sure to make is that this is more than
just about the numbers on a page. This is a cumulative effect of not
only lowering taxes but of downsizing regulation, encouraging domestic
energy production, and doing all of those things which will cause our
economy to grow again. If we can get our economy growing at a better
rate--let's say 3 percent of our GDP--that will add trillions of
dollars to the Federal Treasury and more than make up for any money
that we end up providing in terms of tax relief. So I am very excited
about this particular legislation, what has now come to be known as the
One Big Beautiful Bill.
I have listened as our Democratic colleagues have criticized this
bill, which hasn't actually, finally, been written yet. It is getting
close, and I hope we can start voting on the bill as early as later on
today. But what strikes me as bizarre is our Democratic colleagues have
offered zero alternatives. Do they want a multitrillion-dollar tax
increase on the American people--that, on top of 40-year high
inflation, thanks to Bidenomics? Everything costs, roughly, on average,
20 percent more than it did before the radical spending spree of the
last administration, which threw gasoline on the fire of inflation and
ate up the standard of living of most Americans and made their dollar
worth about 20 percent less than it was beforehand.
I think we have a better idea, and that is, no, we don't think you
should increase taxes by trillions of dollars on top of 40-year-high
inflation thanks to the Biden-Harris administration and their radical
spending spree. I think most Americans would agree with us. So they
have no alternative other than to raise taxes on hard-working American
families.
The other thing that our bill does is it increases the standard
deduction. Most families don't necessarily even itemize their tax
deductions. So the standard deduction is important.
The child tax credit--we know it is expensive to raise children. So
having an enhanced child tax credit is really important, and that is
what this legislation will do.
But the other thing that this bill does--as long as I have been in
the Senate, we have never tried to undertake spending cuts necessary to
deal with a $37 trillion debt. We are now paying
[[Page S3606]]
more interest on the national debt than we are on defense, which is
unsustainable.
We don't have to be reminded of recent events in Iran, for example,
with Iran fast tracking toward a nuclear weapon. Thank goodness for the
decisiveness and courage of our U.S. military and our Commander in
Chief, President Trump, and Iran is no longer on that fast track to
build a nuclear weapon.
But this is a very fragile and dangerous world we live in, the most
dangerous since World War II. None of us want to go down that path
again. So the way we address that is to reestablish deterrence:
American peace through strength. That is how we keep the peace. It is
through strength. And we can't do it if we don't have the money to
spend on our defense, either on our personnel, on our weapons systems,
and the like.
Our Democratic friends have no answer to any of this. Their answer, I
guess, is to do nothing.
There was a former Speaker of the House, years ago, Sam Rayburn, a
Texan, who said:
Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a skilled
carpenter to build one.
We are doing our very best to try to build that barn. Is it perfect?
No. But we are trying, and we believe we are making tremendous progress
on a number of fronts.
One area that is particularly important to me and my constituents in
Texas--all 31 million of them--is, finally, to bring some security to
our border.
We were told during the Biden-Kamala Harris administration that we
needed to pass some new laws, back when the policies of the
administration were open borders. We are still paying the price, and we
probably will pay the price for years to come--criminals coming across
the border, some dangerous gang members; illegal drugs; human
trafficking of innocent children and women. But when we elected
President Trump on November 5, it didn't take him very long to bring
those numbers--those tens of thousands of people streaming across the
border on a monthly basis--to bring that to near zero. And it didn't
take any new laws. It just took a President willing to enforce the law.
But it costs money to provide for the detention facilities and the
personnel necessary to secure the border and to safeguard our country.
That is one of the other things that is in this bill that is so
important: money to build more infrastructure or the wall, more money
to hire Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents,
and more money for detention facilities so that there are real
consequences associated with coming into our country illegally.
Then, as I mentioned a moment ago, the money that is necessary to
reestablish deterrence to help our military--that is in this bill as
well.
And the answer of our Democratic colleagues is: No, we don't think we
should do anything to secure the border, to defend the Nation, or to
prevent a multitrillion-dollar tax increase, along with the devastating
economic consequences to hard-working Texans and American families.
The only thing our colleagues on the other side have to say is: This
is going to help rich people at the expense of regular folks.
One of our colleagues described the bill as handouts for
billionaires, arguing that our legislation would cause the American
people to ``suffer so that Jeff Bezos can buy another yacht.''
So what is their alternative to our legislation? Crickets. Nothing.
It is a cheap shot.
Looking west to Nevada, one of our colleagues has said this is a
``tax scam'' that hurts the middle class while giving trillions to the
ultrawealthy.
Now, I realize these are probably focus group-tested phrases that
move the dial in the absence of any other information, but the fact of
the matter is this is false.
You know, I guess I am old fashioned. I was raised to believe that
you should tell the truth, and you should not lie. But up here in
Washington, DC, in the Congress, on things like this, lying seems to be
the coin of the realm. And, unfortunately, it has an impact if people
don't know the truth, which is why we have to point out the
important aspects of this legislation and what we are trying to do.
These statements by our Democratic colleagues cannot be further from
the truth. And here is the worst part: They know it. They know it, but
they persist.
This bill is anything but a reverse-Robin Hood scheme. But I am not
surprised, I guess, that they are misrepresenting this bill in an
attempt to scare the American people and maybe try to energize their
political base.
I think Democrats are a little desperate these days, seeing what
happened in the New York mayoral election, with an anti-Semitic
socialist winning that nomination in New York. This is what the modern
Democratic Party has become, the party of AOC and the radicals. And
they wonder why they lost the last election in November?
Well, those sorts of politics and policies were rejected by the
American people in favor of a President who will enforce the law and
who will keep America safe.
According to the Wall Street Journal, 62 percent of Americans will
see a tax increase if we don't pass this extension--62 percent. That
is, obviously, more than just people who are the ``well to do.''
I am for middle-class taxpayers. And, of course, President Trump has
said he wants to further extend tax relief to the middle class, to
people who work in the service industries. No tax on tips, no tax on
overtime, no tax on Social Security--those are genuinely middle-class
tax cuts.
I guess our Democratic colleagues are opposed to those too. They
think, I presume, that they ought to pay, in the service industries--
the hard-working middle class in our country ought to pay--more, not
less.
If we let the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions expire, households
earning less than $400,000 a year will face a $2.6 trillion tax hike,
with the average family of 4 earning $80,000 paying $1,700 more in
taxes alone every year. In Texas, families will be saddled with $3,000
in additional taxes if we fail to extend these expiring provisions. And
as I mentioned a moment ago, working families will see the child tax
credit cut in half.
Our Democratic colleagues won't tell you this, but the Big Beautiful
Bill, as it is called, will prevent all of this and more. It increases
the child tax credit, which is estimated to benefit 46 million American
families. Are all of those the superrich? Well, I think not. These are
average, hard-working middle-class families who will benefit from the
enhanced child tax credit.
Our bill will help working Americans with provisions, as I said, like
the no tax on tips and no tax on overtime. I would actually like to see
some of my Democratic colleagues go out to their favorite restaurant
and explain to their server that they support the U.S. Government
continuing to take a larger and larger cut of their earnings--their
tips earnings. I doubt they would acknowledge that. I don't think that
kind of suggestion would go over too well, but that is what they are
doing by opposing this bill.
Again, if they have got a better idea, let's hear it. Again, all we
hear is crickets, silence, when they are not misrepresenting what the
bill actually does.
Another provision that is important--and this used to be bipartisan,
back when Newt Gingrich and President Bill Clinton, a Republican
Speaker and a Democrat President of the United States, passed the
Welfare Reform Act--Congress implemented reasonable, working
requirements for able-bodied adults. It is not good for people to sit
on the couch and play video games all day when they are able-bodied.
Work brings not only the ability to provide for yourself and your
family a certain amount of dignity and self-respect, but it helps your
community to make sure you are a more productive, a happier person.
And, certainly, it is not fair to the taxpayers to have them
subsidizing people sitting on the couch playing video games all day
when they can contribute to their community and their family.
One of our colleagues from Illinois said:
Republicans are working to cut food and health care
programs like SNAP and Medicaid. The so-called ``Big
Beautiful Bill'' will
[[Page S3607]]
hurt hard-working Americans to pay for tax cuts for
billionaires. Plain and simple.
More propaganda, more disinformation, more untruths. The reforms to
Medicaid, which is an important healthcare safety net, and SNAP,
previously known as food stamps, included in the Big Beautiful Bill,
will strengthen and safeguard our safety net for those who actually
need it.
And as for Medicaid, that money should not go to able-bodied adults.
It should go to children, the disabled, and pregnant women. That is the
original target of Medicaid. That is where the safety net is important.
But if you are giving that money and spending money on able-bodied
adults, obviously, that is going to detract from where the money should
go to help those truly in need.
It is the same thing with food stamps, or the SNAP program. Why in
the world should taxpayers subsidize somebody who is capable of working
and contributing to themselves and their family and their community by
subsidizing them through food stamps?
So a work requirement for able-bodied adults just makes sense. But I
have been here in Washington, DC, long enough to know that common sense
isn't all that common up here.
As I mentioned, the Welfare Reform Act of 1996, in a bipartisan
fashion, implemented work requirements to Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families, which was a welfare program. It was remarkably
successful in bringing those living in poverty into the labor force so
they can earn a living; so they don't need to depend on Medicaid
because, just maybe, they have private health insurance through their
employer.
It just makes sense on all of these means-tested programs. By that,
it just means to have certain income requirements. If you fall below,
you qualify. Above that earnings level, you don't qualify anymore. But
why shouldn't we have those work requirements for all means-tested
programs? Well, we should, and we will.
Recent research from the Foundation for Government Accountability
found that more than 62 percent of able-bodied adults who receive
Medicaid don't work at all--62 percent able-bodied adults, sitting on a
couch, playing video games, I guess. I don't know what you do all day--
watch TV, if you are able-bodied and you are capable of working but you
are not working.
With a national debt exceeding $36 trillion a year and more than half
of Medicaid beneficiaries who are able to work but are sitting home
idly, requiring these folks to at least start looking for a job is a
commonsense step in the right direction. We need to make sure that our
safety nets are there for people who need them, not for people who
don't need them. We need them to be secure for the seniors and those
who have fallen on hard times, and we have to make sure others are not
abusing the system while bankrupting the country.
Another way the Big Beautiful Bill safeguards our safety net is by
strengthening eligibility checks. It is well known that people in
certain income levels tend to fall in and out of eligibility for some
of these means-tested programs. Let's say they are working but then
they have lost a job, and until they can find another one, they need
access to them. But once they get a job, then they no longer should
qualify. So strengthening eligibility checks is an important reform--
and not providing these benefits to illegal aliens.
You know, the Border Patrol tells me, in my many visits down there--
and I have hosted many of my colleagues down at the border. They have
said there are push factors and there are pull factors to illegal
immigration. The push factors are the normal ones you would expect--
poverty, violence in your home country--but the pull factors are the
incentives that are provided to people who have come to our country
illegally. And when we provide taxpayer benefits to people from other
countries, it is a pull factor. It is an encouragement, an incentive,
and particularly when there are no consequences to violating the law,
as was the case during the 4 years of the last administration.
Our colleagues across the aisle apparently think it is OK to take
money out of your pocket and to give it to illegal aliens for benefits,
and they see no problem with incentivizing more and more people to come
across the border illegally.
Well, this brings me to another important provision, which is
important particularly to my State, the State of Texas. Thanks to the
efforts of the Texas delegation in the House, this bill includes money
to reimburse the State of Texas for border security measures that were
undertaken in the absence of the Federal Government doing its job
during the Biden administration.
Our international border is a Federal responsibility, but in the
absence of the Biden administration enforcing the law, the State of
Texas had no alternative but to implement Operation Lone Star to
provide the Department of Public Safety and the National Guard to help
secure the border, to help stem the flow of drugs, to help slow down
the human trafficking, and to slow down and stop as much of the illegal
immigration as they could. And that came at significant expense to
State taxpayers. This is not the State's responsibility, but the State
had to bear the burden. And this bill reimburses Texas taxpayers for
that unfair burden that was left as a result of the abdication of
responsibility by the previous administration.
These are just a few of the many important wins for the American
people that are included in this Big Beautiful Bill. I wish we were in
a different place, where our Democratic colleagues would actually work
with us and try to prevent a multitrillion-dollar tax increase on 62
percent of American working families. But in the absence of their
willingness to work with us, we have no choice but to get this done
with just Republican votes.
I encourage my fellow Republicans not to let the naysayers convince
the American people that this is somehow bad for them when the opposite
is actually true. This is also, finally, an important part of President
Trump delivering on the promises he made when he won a historic
election last November 5, and it is our job to deliver on that
electoral mandate by passing this agenda.
This bill will do wonderful things for the 31 million people in my
State and the 250 million people who call America home, and I look
forward to supporting it when it comes to the floor in the coming hours
and days.
I yield the floor.
____________________