[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 120 (Wednesday, July 22, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4205-S4206]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Working Families Tax Cut Act

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, the American people deserve to have more 
money in their own pockets. The Working Families Tax Cut law made that 
happen. Republicans stopped the largest single tax increase in American 
history. That is what the Democrats wanted.
  Americans already filed their taxes this year, and working families 
are keeping more of what they earned, and the data proves it.
  More than 7\1/2\ million Americans benefited from the no-tax-on-tips 
policy that we put into place right here on this Senate floor. So 
today, there are waiters, barbers, bartenders, tour guides--all were 
able to claim deductions--and it averaged over $7,100 in deductions--
because of no tax on tips. More than 29 million Americans benefited 
from no tax on overtime. These are firefighters, police officers, and 
nurses. They are linemen and coal miners in Wyoming. They claimed an 
average deduction of over $3,000--all as a result of the law the 
Republicans have passed. Money that once went to bureaucrats in 
Washington, DC, now stays in the pockets of hard-working Americans, and 
that is where it belongs.
  Had Democrats gotten their way, taxes would have gone up by a lot. 
Every Democrat in this Chamber voted to continue taxing tip income, 
overtime income. They just wanted to get a hand on people's money. 
Every Democrat voted to raise taxes by $4 trillion. Well, because 
Republicans were in the majority in the Senate and in the House, we 
were able to stop this Democrat price increase and tax increase.
  Now what we see is that extremist Democrats in Governor mansions 
across the country and State legislatures are trying to undermine the 
Working Families Tax Cut law, and they are doing it in city halls and 
in State capitals.
  In Washington, DC--right here--the city council tried to force hard-
working Americans to pay taxes to the city. They can't force them to 
pay it to the Federal Government; hey, the city wants the money on tips 
and on overtime. The city council of Washington, DC, refused to allow 
the hard-working waiters, bartenders, police officers, and firefighters 
to keep that hard-earned money. They didn't have to pay it on Federal 
taxes, but local taxes in DC--the DC city council said: Give it to us. 
This is the city that is soon going to get a socialist mayor, just like 
they have in New York City right now.
  Right now, in 21 different States, we have far-left Governors 
refusing to allow the tax cuts that we passed to be passed down to the 
State level. So Democrats in California, in New York, in Minnesota, 
Illinois, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Virginia continue to take 
away people's tip money and overtime money so they can spend it 
locally. That is the States and the cities, not the people, the 
individuals.
  So just like Democrats here in Congress, the leaders in Democrat 
States around the country want to raise taxes, not cut them. They 
believe they can spend your money better than you can. They believe 
they make better decisions than you do. They decide, and you end up as 
a loser if you are living in one of those liberal States.
  Well, we know why Democrats refuse to loosen the grip on your tax 
dollars. Democrats want to take more money out of your pocket to give 
free healthcare to illegal immigrants. And that is what we see in so 
many of these States with sanctuary cities, sanctuary States--free 
healthcare. And it is not free. People pay for it. It is taxpayers. It 
is people going to work every day and having their tax dollars taken to 
pay for healthcare for illegal immigrants. That seems to be part of the 
manifesto that the extremists in the Democrat Party are trying to slam 
down the throats of American taxpayers.
  We know these extremists are winning Democrat primaries all across 
the country. Their manifesto includes mass amnesty, open borders, and 
elimination of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the country. That 
is what they are demanding, and it is not for the benefit of the 
American people. That is the agenda of the radical left.
  In far-left States, from California to Minnesota, we have seen their 
policies in action. Working families are overtaxed, and fraud is out of 
control.
  Now Democrats are going to make life less affordable. That is what we 
see. That is their model. Take it to the

[[Page S4206]]

government; they know better than we do as taxpayers. That is not what 
the American people want.
  Here is what Republicans are doing: We are protecting taxpayers. We 
are putting more money back in their pockets so they can decide how to 
spend it, how to save it, and what to invest in. We are fighting the 
fraud. And that is what I hear about so much in Wyoming--the fraud in 
Democrat States that Democrats ignore, that Democrats enable. It is 
awful fraud. You look at it and say: How can this continue?

  Just this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that we 
stopped nearly $100 million in taxpayer money from going to dead 
people--going to dead people.
  Just yesterday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services stopped 
more than $1 billion in Medicaid funding from going to California and 
Minnesota. Why? Because of fraud and failure to comply with the 
regulations to make sure that the money is actually not wasted, that 
the money is spent as it is supposed to be--taking care of people who 
need those services, and there are people who need those services. 
Every time a fraudster takes $1 or $100 or $1,000 or $1 million, that 
is services that don't go to people that need them, desperately need 
them.
  Here in the Senate, Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa is a leader in the war 
on fraud. When it comes to exposing that fraud, Senator Ernst is both a 
watchdog and an attack dog. She has proposed a comprehensive anti-fraud 
piece of legislation. Her bill cracks down on fraud. It claws back 
stolen money. It prosecutes the crooks and the criminals and the 
scammers who prey upon the taxpayers. I support what Senator Ernst is 
doing. I am a cosponsor. Her anti-fraud legislation would save 
taxpayers $240 billion. That is what kind of fraud is out there.
  Senator Schumer recently said on this very floor that Democrats want 
to fight corruption. It is time for Democrats to prove it.
  Republicans are cutting taxes. We are stopping fraud. Democrats, on 
the other hand, are voting to raise taxes and, up until now, have been 
protecting the fraud.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic whip.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I would like to react to the statement of 
my friend and colleague from Wyoming. I am against fraud. That is it. 
On the record: I am against fraud. I am a Democrat, and I don't know 
where he reached this different conclusion, but I want to make it very 
clear.
  Having said that, I am also a realist. I know that the families I 
represent in Illinois and across the Nation are facing budgets, family 
budgets, which are impossible to live with. They are not only 
struggling paycheck to paycheck, they are also watching the price of 
groceries go up. They know the price of gasoline goes up and down, and 
now it is on the upward trend because of the President's war in Iran. 
Utility bills in my State are up 15 percent this year over last year 
because of President Trump's energy policy, which is opposed to 
sustainable, renewable sources of energy, which are the most 
affordable. The list goes on and on.
  The Big Beautiful Bill, which Republicans brag about, was a bill that 
ended up with millions of Americans losing their health insurance 
because the cost of premiums had gone up too high.
  So I think it is just great that we have tipped income exempt from 
taxes and that other breaks are given to working people. I would 
support those any day. But the bill that created those also gave the 
biggest tax cuts in the history of the United States to the wealthiest 
people in the United States--nothing, very little, for families in 
comparison. That is the difference.
  I think we ought to be honest with the American people. The No. 1 
issue in this campaign is the affordability that families worry about 
every single week. There is an issue I am going to address here more 
particularly, which gets to the heart of this as well.