[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 16402]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               TAX REFORM

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on another matter, as we continue our 
work in the Senate, we look forward to hearing the President's 
perspectives on how to advance our shared agenda, particularly the 
upcoming debate on bringing tax relief, economic growth, and jobs to 
Americans through tax reform.
  Last week, the Senate passed a comprehensive, responsible budget that 
will help put the government on a path to balance and help put our 
economy on a road to robust growth. This week, the House plans to bring 
the budget to the floor for passage by Thursday. Once they pass it, we 
will have important legislative tools to help our economy grow through 
tax reform.
  As we all know, after years of an economy that failed to live up to 
its full potential, the time is now to pass tax reform so that we can 
get America going again and growing again. We want to make taxes lower, 
simpler, and fairer. We want to close loopholes that are exploited by 
the wealthy. We want to make it easier to create new jobs in America 
and keep them here. In short, we want to take more money out of 
Washington's pockets and put more in yours.
  These are the ideas that drive tax reform. They are shared by the 
President. They are shared by Americans in both political parties. They 
should be shared by Senators of both political parties, as well, and 
for many years, they actually were. The former chairman of the Finance 
Committee, Senator Wyden, called our current Tax Code an 
``anticompetitive mess.'' The senior Senator from Michigan, Ms. 
Stabenow, expressed her concern for a tax code that incentivizes jobs 
to be shipped overseas, and our friend, the Democratic leader, wrote 
about our Tax Code's failure to help American workers compete.
  Many Democrats called for action to get tax reform done. I hope that 
our Democratic friends will work with us now in a serious way to 
actually do it. After all, it is not as if the need for tax reform has 
changed since our friends made these statements as recently as a few 
years ago. The only thing that has changed is the occupant of the White 
House. That is the only difference. So let's get this done. The 
American people are counting on us.

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