[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 15975]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         WORK BEFORE THE SENATE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the Senate, as I said yesterday, has a 
full schedule of work before it this fall. It is what the President, 
Vice President, and I discussed at our working lunch at the White House 
yesterday.
  This week, the Senate is advancing one of the most important items on 
our agenda with consideration of the comprehensive budget for fiscal 
year 2018. It is a good budget that reflects the hard work of Chairman 
Enzi and the Budget Committee. It will help rein in Federal spending. 
It will help our country achieve balance. It will also help our economy 
grow.
  One of the ways this budget will do so is by providing legislative 
tools to advance tax reform. After a lost decade of missed economic 
opportunities, America's middle class deserves an economy that reaches 
for its full potential again, and tax reform is the single most 
important thing we can do today to get there.
  It is not hard to see why. Our current Tax Code is archaic, arduous, 
and often just plain bizarre. It holds our economy back. It can hold 
workers' wages down. It actually incentivizes companies to shift jobs 
and profits overseas. It makes it easier for the wealthy and well-
connected to game the system. Yet it is almost impossible for anyone 
else to understand it.
  A constituent from Harrodsburg, KY, wrote to my office exasperated 
about the unfair Tax Code. This is what she said: ``I am writing today 
to express my complete and total disgust for the complex, completely 
unfair, and completely messed up tax system in this country.'' This 
constituent, who has worked for nearly three decades as a CPA and has 
helped countless Kentuckians navigate the system, described some of the 
hardships faced by her clients and then continued by saying that ``the 
honest, hardworking folks can't get ahead, the cheaters don't get 
caught and the rich just keep getting richer.''
  That was my constituent from Harrodsburg, KY, summing up today's Tax 
Code. Her story underlines the systemic problems of our Tax Code, and 
it is often our Nation's workers--including those in Kentucky--who 
continue to bear the burden.
  Recently, the Kentucky State treasurer wrote an op-ed calling on 
Congress to provide much needed relief from our Tax Code. ``We need tax 
reform,'' she wrote, ``to increase Kentucky's economic growth and for 
greater middle-class prosperity throughout the Commonwealth.''
  I agree. So does President Trump, his team, and our colleagues here 
in Congress. We are all in agreement that delivering relief to working 
families should be at the heart of our plan, and that is what we 
continue to work toward in developing tax reform.
  For families and individuals in Kentucky and across the Nation, we 
think taxes should be lower, simpler, and fairer. Our plan calls for 
doubling the standard deduction and significantly increasing the child 
tax credit. We will eliminate loopholes that are primarily used by the 
wealthy while protecting incentives that benefit the middle class.
  Our plan also reforms the Tax Code to provide relief to our Nation's 
small businesses and to make it easier to keep jobs here in America. In 
an increasingly competitive global economy, we are working to put 
American workers on a level playing field.
  Above all, our goal is this. We want to take more money out of 
Washington's pockets and put more money into the pockets of the middle 
class in Kentucky and across our country.
  This sounds like a place where we should all be able to agree--
Republicans and Democrats alike. In fact, our friends on the other side 
of the aisle have often supported the idea of tax reform and bringing 
jobs back to America. I hope they will again in the course of this 
important effort. I hope they will not fall into blind partisanship and 
reject any collaboration simply because they don't like the President.
  Instead, they can work with us in a serious way on an overhaul of the 
Tax Code that can truly help the people of Kentucky, help the people of 
their States, and help Americans all across the land.
  I look forward to continuing to work with colleagues in Congress and 
the administration to pass a responsible budget and to deliver tax 
reform for the American workers and families, who deserve an economy 
that reaches its true potential once again.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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