[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 20328-20330]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            TAX REFORM BILL

  Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, I rise today to note this Congress's 
historic achievement in reforming the Nation's tax system for the first 
time in 30 years. I congratulate the hard-working teams, the staffers, 
and others from the Budget, Finance, and Energy Committees and their 
colleagues in the House for the work they have done.
  It is not easy to modernize a Tax Code that has languished for over 
30 years. Many groups have worked for a long time to solidify their 
special benefits, and they don't want to see those perks or special 
benefits go away. Many others just don't know how to work things under 
the status quo and think that must be the only way to do things, is to 
find a new status quo that represents the old status quo.
  Reforming the Tax Code is not easy, but it is important. It is 
important to America's economy. It is important to America's working 
families. It is important to Colorado. It is important for a lot of 
reasons. For instance, right now, we waste 6 billion hours and $263 
billion just to file our taxes every year. After this reform, 92 
percent of taxpayers will take the standard deduction. That simplifies 
the code, cuts those hours, and eliminates wasted dollars.
  Perhaps most importantly, it will shake our economy out of its slow-
walking recovery. While there are booming areas in our country--and 
undoubtedly Colorado's Front Range represents some of the best examples 
of booming areas in our Nation--there are many areas of the country 
that haven't seen the growth and have, quite frankly, been left behind. 
They haven't seen their wages go up for a long time. In fact, yesterday 
the Denver Post published two stories about wages. Those stories point 
out that median wages in Colorado in 2016 were still below the levels 
of 2007 and even 2000. While I appreciate these reports, the fact is, 
we knew it wasn't anything unheard of. It certainly isn't new to those 
Coloradans who live outside of the Front Range and who they haven't 
seen their wages grow. It is a reality they have been dealing with for 
far too long.
  Over the years, wages have become detached from corporate profits, 
and this chart is a good example of what

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has occurred. Prior to 1990, a 1 percent increase in corporate profits 
led to a greater than 1 percent increase in worker wages. But from 2008 
to 2016, a 1 percent increase in corporate profits led to only a 0.3 
percent increase in wages.
  What you can see right here is the corporate rate over time. You can 
see that in 1990, 1986, the U.S. rate remained at 35 percent, what is 
today, for at least a little bit longer, the highest statutory tax rate 
in the world when it comes to business rates. You can see OECD nations 
have dramatically dropped theirs beginning in 1990 and going down 
through today. That is what has happened. Over that same period, our 
once-competitive corporate tax system has gotten more and more out of 
date. Our corporate rate today, as I said, is about the same as it was 
30 years ago--35 percent. Meanwhile, foreign countries, such as 
Germany, France, Italy, and even Socialist Greece, have lowered their 
tax rates. Now America has the highest corporate tax rate in the 
industrialized world, and Europe has an average statutory rate of 
around 18.5 percent. So American businesses have shifted their work 
overseas. New factories were built in Poland, not Pueblo. New offices 
opened in Dublin, not Delta. With fewer opportunities, American wages 
stagnated.
  The empirical data on this is clear. We have another chart to talk 
about this. High-tax countries see anemic wage growth--well under 1 
percent a year--but low-tax countries see much stronger growth--between 
1 and 4 percent.
  You can see right here on the red line--this line represents the 
highest statutory corporate rates in the world, the 10 countries with 
the highest statutory corporate rates. They have less than 1 percent 
wage growth. You can see the lowest statutory corporate rates--the 
countries that represent the bottom 10 statutory rates in the world 
have wage growth at 4 percent a year. That is clear data--growth 
between 1 and 4 percent in low-tax countries.
  Make no mistake, America is on the red line because we have an out-
of-date corporate Tax Code--an out-of-date Tax Code that we have begun 
to address.
  Lowering the corporate tax rate has historically had support on both 
sides of the aisle, including something President Obama said back in 
2011 in his State of the Union Address at a joint session of Congress. 
But suddenly, over the last couple of months, that is not the case 
anymore, and sadly I suspect that opposition to tax cuts has more to do 
with partisan politics than the merits of the proposal.
  Whatever the reason, instead of reaching out and working together, we 
have heard a parade of horrors: It will run up deficits. It only 
benefits the wealthy. Instead of investing in workers to make more 
profits, businesses will just hoard their money. We have even heard 
that provision after provision will literally kill people.
  As we heard objections get more and more outlandish, including the 
Biblical end of time, we heard the critiques get even more petty. We 
even heard the other side use procedural rules to complain about the 
title of the bill. What we haven't heard is how those opposed to this 
bill would solve the wage problem. They don't have a theory about why 
wages have stagnated or a vision for how to get them moving again, but 
we do. We passed it last night, and this reform will start to move 
wages again. This reform makes our corporate tax rates competitive 
again. It removes the incentive to invest abroad rather than right here 
at home.
  It is no surprise that the Business Roundtable, the Chamber of 
Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business--the 
organization that represents small businesses across this country--the 
National Retail Federation, the National Association of Home Builders, 
and the American Farm Bureau Federation support this bill.
  In fact, you can see this small portion of a stack of letters I 
received from hundreds of farmers from across the State of Colorado who 
wrote to my office and said: I would like to join Colorado Farm Bureau 
to support tax reform that works for Colorado's farmers and ranchers. 
There are hundreds of people saying: Please help reform our Tax Code; 
cut our taxes. These letters came from real Coloradans, people from all 
four corners of the State who know how important real reform is to 
them. These groups know that this reform--these individuals know that 
this reform translates into more growth for the American economy, 
higher wages for American workers.
  The Tax Foundation has estimated that this reform will bring 339,000 
new, full-time equivalent jobs, increase GDP, and raise workers' wages. 
I have heard a lot of doubt about that part. I have heard a lot of 
people say that no wage growth is going to occur, that no money will 
come from these greedy corporations. But look at the news today, 
because today companies across America have already started to respond 
to this pro-growth tax reform.
  Just hours ago, AT&T announced that it will invest an additional $1 
billion in the United States in 2018 and that it will give more than 
200,000 of its U.S. employees a bonus of $1,000--all because of the tax 
relief bill that we have been working on that we passed today. 
Similarly, today Boeing announced that it will make a $300 million 
investment in charitable giving, worker training and education, and 
infrastructure and facility enhancements. Both of these companies made 
it very clear that these investments--over $1 billion of investment and 
$1,000 to 200,000 employees in the United States--are because of the 
tax bill that the House passed today and that we passed early this 
morning.
  There is more on the way, but the business side isn't the only way it 
brings relief to American families and it is certainly not the most 
important. The reforms we have made on the personal side will deliver 
relief to Americans across the Nation.
  A family of four earning the median American income of $73,000 will 
see their tax bill go down by $2,000, and that is nearly 60 percent 
next year from what it was this year. A single parent with two children 
and an income of $52,000 will see a tax cut of nearly $1,900. In a 
nation where too many people can't pull together $100 in 24 hours, 
these tax reductions alone are an enormous benefit. These are real 
benefits to the American people.
  Although there may be some naysayers in Washington who apparently 
have plenty of money, to people in Colorado, people in the West, people 
across this country, that is a big deal. These are benefits to real 
people, and I am glad to be a part and honored to be a part of 
delivering this real relief.
  I am also proud to have done this in a way that creates many 
provisions that are especially important to Colorado. We have made it 
easier to take advantage of the medical expense deduction. We have 
expanded the child tax credit and the 529 programs. We have protected 
other education provisions, such as the student loan interest deduction 
and tax breaks for America's teachers. We have made sure our farming 
co-ops are treated fairly, and we have made sure our growing brewing 
and distilling industry is treated fairly as well. We have made a dent 
in the unfair death tax, and that is a big deal for the hundreds of 
farmers and ranchers who have contacted my office. We have ended the 
ObamaCare individual mandate, so no longer will the people in Colorado 
who earn less than $50,000 be subjected to a tax fine, a penalty by the 
IRS, simply because they can't afford an unaffordable ObamaCare policy. 
We have helped ensure America's energy security by opening up new 
resource opportunities in a responsible manner, making sure that we 
simultaneously ensure that Colorado's renewable energy industry 
continues to flourish by making sure that today's credits for wind, 
solar, and refined coal are still available. That is what we did in 
this legislation.
  Mr. President, this is historic reform. I am proud to be a part of 
it. I am proud to have voted for it. We can already see today that as a 
result of the work we have done, Americans are seeing the benefit.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.

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  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. 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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