[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 20108]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               LEGISLATION FOR IMPROVING THE 21ST CENTURY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Kansas (Mr. Marshall) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate what I believe 
to be the most significant legislation of the 21st century. Of course, 
I am referring to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
  Mr. Speaker, as I travel my State of Kansas and across the country, 
people invariably share with me what they feel their priorities should 
be for this Federal Government.
  Number one, almost everyone will say within 5 or 10 minutes that they 
think national security is very, very important.
  Next, people typically talk to me about how important they feel 
education is.
  Thirdly, people will talk about how important they feel 
infrastructure is: roads, bridges, railroads, high speed internet, and 
those types of things.
  Mr. Speaker, no matter what your priorities are as an American, none 
of those will happen unless we have a strong, healthy economy; and that 
is what I believe the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act does. It helps to continue 
the strong economy that we have created.
  Mr. Speaker, we are so fortunate this year. We are about to celebrate 
our third quarter in a row of GDP growth over 3 percent. It seems like 
just January and I was coming here as a rookie Congressman. All the 
experts and all the press said this country will never see GDP growth 
again, yet we are about to have our third quarter in a row of it. It 
just amazes me to hear people continually tell me what we can and 
cannot do.
  I took a second to look at that. Why do we have this strong economy? 
Why is GDP growth going so well?
  I think it is very simple. We have rolled back regulations and slowed 
that down.
  So many people I have talked to have been sitting on the sidelines 
for the last 8 years, waiting for some certainty. This new President 
has given them the certainty to invest in this economy. Now it is time 
to pass this tax reform bill and make this economy even stronger.
  From day one, from the first day we got here, we talked about common 
visions and goals for what tax reform would look like.
  Number one, we wanted to make sure that we gave relief to hardworking 
Americans so that they would be able to keep more of the money they 
have earned through their labors.
  Number two, we wanted a simpler process.
  Number three, we wanted to grow a healthier economy that would create 
more jobs and pay higher wages.
  Mr. Speaker, I am so proud to be here this week and say that we have 
delivered for the American people.
  Let's take a look at this bill.
  Number one, it gives relief to hardworking Americans. In Kansas, with 
the House bill, the average hardworking couple with two children is 
going to keep $1,400 more of their money.
  But as we continue this process, we tried to make each rendition of 
this bill better and better. Now, the average Kansas family will be 
able to keep up to $2,000 more of their hard-earned money.
  But more than that, there are another 5 million Americans who will 
get another $2,000 bonus this next year. Those are the people who paid 
for the ObamaCare health insurance penalty that they refused to take 
because the insurance was not worth anything.
  Many hardworking Americans will keep up to $4,000 more of their 
money.
  Next, it is simpler. Ninety percent of Americans will be able to do 
their taxes on the back of a postcard.
  Is that not simpler?
  Of course, it is. I don't think anybody can argue those first two 
points.
  Thirdly, the goal was to figure out how we grow the economy, how we 
grow jobs, how we increase wages for people. That is what we have done. 
We have lowered taxes on small businesses, which will be the main job 
creators of this economy. By lowering those taxes, they are going to 
invest more in their people, in labor, and in capital items. Those will 
all lead to growing this economy.
  This is a very easy bill to support, Mr. Speaker. I don't have a 
Ph.D. in economy, but I come from the school of hard knocks and hard 
work. Having ran several companies myself, I think the job pattern that 
we have going on will keep growing.
  We have a 16-year high in consumer confidence, a 16-year low in 
unemployment. That is mostly due to rolling back regulations. But as we 
go forward with this tax reform, we are going to grow more jobs and 
have more opportunities for Americans.
  This is the start of a new year with the greatest tax reform, the 
most important legislation of the 21st century, and I am so proud to be 
part of this process.

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