[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19506-19508]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            TAX REFORM BILL

  Mr. PERDUE. Mr. President, last week the Senate finally broke through 
the gridlock and voted to change our archaic Tax Code once and for all. 
It only took 31 years to get here.
  As to regulatory relief, so far this year this body and this 
administration have removed 860 regulations and rules, from the rule 
book here in Washington, that had been sucking the very life out of our 
free enterprise system over the last 8 years or so. But along with 
regulatory relief and unleashing our energy potential, this is the 
single most important thing we can do to unleash our economic growth 
and bring relief to

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American workers. These changes to the Tax Code are a win for American 
families, American workers, and American businesses.
  Let me give just a couple of examples. A family of four that makes a 
median income today of $73,000 a year will see their tax bill go down 
by $2,200 a month. That is a 60-percent reduction in their Federal 
income taxes. A single payer, a single mom with one child, making the 
median income, will get a 75-percent tax cut. The standard deduction is 
doubled. The child care credit is doubled to $2,000. The individual 
mandate that was unleashed on the American people by ObamaCare is 
eliminated.
  By the way, just in 2014 alone--that is the latest year we have any 
official record from the IRS--this insidious mandate fined 8 million 
Americans $2 billion. The irony of that is that almost half of those 
people make less than $25,000 a year.
  In addition to those changes, the one I love and the one my mother 
and father will love--they were public school teachers--is that the 
teacher expense deduction has been doubled under this bill. In 
addition, 6 million taxpayers have been removed from the Federal income 
tax roll. That is just the half of it.
  Businesses see their corporate tax rate go from 35 percent to 20 
percent, allowing them to create jobs here in America and expand 
production and compete with the rest of the world. Due to our archaic 
repatriation tax, we are the last country in the world to have a double 
tax on profits made by U.S. companies around the world. That is $2.6 
trillion, by some estimates, that we hope will be reinvested here in 
the United States.
  According to outside analysts, this bill creates 1 million new jobs, 
and the average compensation of the average family in America should go 
up by $4,000--some estimate as high as $9,000 per year.
  The GDP only has to go from 1.9 percent to 2.1 percent to more than 
pay for all of this. That is not my estimate. That is the estimate of 
the Joint Committee on Tax. If you don't believe them, then, the 
Congressional Budget Office, with which we have all kinds of problems, 
say that we only have to grow the economy 0.4 percent. So anywhere from 
1.9 to 2.3 percent growth would more than pay for this investment in 
the American worker. I would argue, because of the last two quarters, 
that we are already seeing 3 percent growth, primarily, because of the 
expectation that we are going to act on tax and because of the reality 
of the fact that we have been moving on the regulatory regime that has 
been perpetrated on the American worker these last 8 years.
  There are a lot of benefits, but in my opinion the person who 
benefits from this tax bill the most is that person in America who gets 
a job.
  When it comes to the corporate rate, I personally have seen firsthand 
how important it is to have a rate that allows American workers to 
compete with their counterparts around the world. The most stimulative 
part of this tax bill, in my opinion, is this corporate tax cut, 
because of the impact it will have on our businesses and workers and 
because it creates a level playing field with the rest of the world.
  Let's be very clear. My original goal was 15 percent because I know 
this is a dynamic situation, where the rest of the world today is going 
to move because of what we are doing.
  Both the House and the Senate agreed on 20 percent. Now there is some 
talk about changing it in conference. My question is this. The House 
approved 20 percent and the Senate approved 20 percent. The purpose of 
this conference is to work between those two decisions to find the 
differences and mull those into a finer bill that both the House and 
Senate can vote on. My question for this body and for this conference 
is this: What is between 20 and 20? I don't understand. This should be 
a no-brainer.
  The best thing we can do for people in the United States who work 
with their hands--these are people who punch a timeclock, just like I 
did when I was working my way through college--is to create a level 
playing field for the rest of the world and lower the corporate tax 
rate. The current rate sends jobs overseas and keeps our workers from 
competing on a level playing field. We have the best workforce in the 
history of the world, and yet we have hamstrung them such that other 
companies can come to the United States and buy our companies and take 
those jobs overseas. We need to get this tax rate competitive and as 
low as possible. Otherwise, other countries will immediately lower 
their rates, and we will still be at a significant disadvantage.
  If we don't take bold action right now, we may not get the chance to 
do so again for another 30 years. We need to make sure we don't get 
outpaced by other countries, even after we make these tax changes.
  Let me just describe why this is so important. Today, the U.S. tax 
rate is 35 percent. Asia right now averages about 18 percent. Europe is 
about 20 percent. So if we go to 20 percent, the rest of the world is 
going to move. We already know that the United Kingdom is moving to 15 
percent. Others are talking about moving as well. We have a 50-percent 
differential. That difference allows other countries to come into this 
country, buy our companies and use that tax differential to pay for 
part of the acquisition costs. What that does is it takes jobs overseas 
and actually thwarts our ability to compete. Because of this reality, 
because of this 50-percent differential, there are twice as many 
foreign companies buying U.S. companies, both C corporations and 
passthroughs, as there are U.S. companies buying foreign companies. We 
simply have to change that.
  Let me give you some examples of how competitive and how dynamic this 
issue about the corporate tax rate is. Germany today has a 16 percent 
tax rate; that compares to our 35 percent top tax rate. The UK today is 
19 percent, but as I said earlier, they have already announced that 
they are going to 17 percent next year. France and the Netherlands have 
also announced that they are going to take rates lower next year.
  When the UK goes to 17 percent, France lowers theirs, the Netherlands 
lowers theirs--Germany is already sitting right there at 16 percent--if 
we increase this corporate tax rate from what we have already agreed to 
in our negotiations in this body, then we will replicate the 50-percent 
differential with the rest of the world almost immediately, so we will 
have accomplished nothing.
  The greatest burden on the American worker, again, is this corporate 
tax rate of 35 percent. It is estimated that every 1 percent drop in 
the corporate tax rate could mean roughly 30,000 new jobs in an economy 
that is $30 billion larger. We can't afford to play around with this 
corporate tax rate that we have already agreed on. It is time to stop 
that debate.
  All of these changes in the Tax Code, though, were meant to lift up 
Americans, simply put. It is the family who will benefit from this. It 
is the individual who is trying to get an education, get that first 
job. It is those people who are going to retire and depend on a robust 
Federal Government to take care of them in their retirement. But right 
now, with this debt crisis, we are losing the ability to do the right 
thing.
  Members of both sides of the aisle have previously supported many of 
these changes to the Tax Code. There was no reason to vote no on this 
bill, and there is no reason not to support them now. The United States 
made history the other night at about 2 a.m. on Saturday morning by 
approving this plan. We now have certain individuals from this body and 
the House who will go into a conference, and they will work out the 
differences between the House bill and the Senate bill. That is called 
democracy, and I am looking forward to seeing that bill come back to 
this body. We must not lose sight about what this is all about--to 
bring relief to Americans and help us become more competitive. We 
cannot take this standard of living for granted.
  This body is great at spending money, but right now every dollar we 
spend of discretionary money, by definition, is borrowed money. This 
can no

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longer be the case. This tax bill is clearly an investment in our 
future.
  I am not embarrassed to say that I believe in capitalism. Capitalism 
is what has made this country different from any other country in the 
world so far. Right now, the economic miracle of this past century is 
based on three simple things: innovation, capital formation, and the 
rule of law. That, combined with the best workforce in the history of 
the world, has created this economic miracle. Yet we sit here today 
where my children, the next generation, will be the first generation in 
the history of our country to face lower economic prospects than the 
generation before them. That does not have to be the case. It is up to 
this body to stand up and do what is right for the next generation. 
This is a critical part--don't miss this--this is a critical part of 
solving our debt crisis. This is the least we owe to our children and 
our children's children.
  We must continue doing all we can to make sure that we put this tax 
bill on President Trump's desk before Christmas. Our children and our 
children's children's futures depend on it.
  Thank you.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.

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