[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 20562-20563]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          REPUBLICAN TAX BILL

  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, yesterday President Trump and 
congressional Republicans went to the White House to celebrate the 
passage of tax legislation that was partisan and that was rammed 
through the Senate earlier this week without one public hearing.
  Debate on this bill in the Senate is over, but I think we must not 
lose sight of the impact this legislation will have on so many families 
and on our economy.
  Make no mistake--this tax bill is not tax reform. Instead, it asks 
middle-class families and future generations to foot the bill for 
massive tax breaks for large corporations and the wealthy. By adding 
over $1 trillion to the national debt, this tax plan will undermine our 
ability to address so many of the real challenges that face this 
country and middle-class families in America.
  Indeed, Republicans have already made clear that this tax bill is 
just step No. 1. What we have already heard from Members of the House 
is that step No. 2 is going to be next year, and that includes deep 
cuts to Social Security, to Medicare, and to Medicaid. They are saying 
we are going to have to do that to address the deficits that have been 
made far worse by this bill.
  Meanwhile, the majority's headlong rush to ram through this tax bill 
has meant they jeopardized access to healthcare for tens of millions of 
Americans.
  My colleague from Ohio just talked about so many families in his 
State who are worried about losing their children's health insurance. 
We are seeing that in New Hampshire, as well, and across this country. 
By considering only stop-gap, short-term reauthorizations of critical 
healthcare programs, fear and uncertainty have been created for 
countless American families.
  Because the Congress has failed to enact a long-term reauthorization 
of the Children's Health Insurance Program, health coverage for nearly 
9 million children across the United States is at risk. Congress has 
failed to enact a long-term reauthorization of the community health 
centers, which more than 25 million Americans rely on for essential 
healthcare. And according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget 
Office, the tax bill's repeal of the individual mandate means that 
nearly 13 million fewer Americans will have health coverage in the next 
year, and many millions more are going to pay increases in their rates.
  In addition, the majority has also failed to enact a long-term 
reauthorization of the Special Diabetes Program. That is a devastating 
blow to nearly 1.25 million Americans who are living with type 1 
diabetes.
  All of these programs have earned strong bipartisan support. That is 
what is so hard to understand about this. All of these programs should 
have been fully reauthorized for the long term because I know my 
colleagues in the Senate support these programs.
  Once again, we have missed a prime opportunity to address the opioid 
crisis. We desperately need a Federal response to the opioid epidemic 
that includes robust, sustained resources that match the scale of this 
epidemic.
  Just this week, we learned from the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention that because of soaring overdose mortality rates, life 
expectancy in the United States has declined for the second year in a 
row. For the first time since the early 1960s, we have seen the second 
year of decline in life expectancy because so many people are 
overdosing because of substance use disorders. In 2016, 63,000 people 
died from overdoses. If we were losing that many people to a war in the 
Middle East, there would be an outcry in this country. I want to know 
where the outcry is, and when is this body going to act?
  On Tuesday, the University of New Hampshire released a study that 
cited a fivefold increase over the past decade in our State of babies 
who were born addicted because of their parents' substance use 
disorders. Yet, in the face of this uncontrolled national public health 
emergency, the majority has once again failed to find appropriate 
funding.
  Again, this is an issue that I know has bipartisan support. I worked 
with my colleagues here on the other side of the aisle to try to 
address this issue. Yet it has not been a priority, just as funding 
children's health insurance and the community health centers and

[[Page 20563]]

other healthcare initiatives--the Special Diabetes Program--have not 
been a priority for funding.
  This is an enormous lost opportunity. We could have written 
bipartisan legislation to address all of these issues, and we could 
have fully authorized, in a timely manner, critical health programs on 
which tens of millions of Americans rely. We could have addressed the 
opioid emergency, which is ravaging communities across this country. 
But instead, what did we get? We got a tax bill that makes a mockery of 
reform. It makes the Tax Code more complex, not less. It will grow the 
deficits and our national debt. And instead of helping the middle class 
in reducing the complexity of our outdated Tax Code, it creates a 
bonanza of new loopholes for the large corporations and the wealthiest 
in this country.
  The majority here in the Senate had no problem coming up with $1.5 
trillion in unpaid-for tax cuts for the biggest corporations in this 
country. In the final days before passing the tax bill, they had no 
problem creating a new $700 million loophole for oil and gas 
partnerships that will benefit oil giants, such as Shell and Valero. 
They had no problem creating a new loophole for wealthy individuals 
with large real estate holdings--a loophole that has been described as 
a jackpot for the Trump family and for several Members of Congress. 
They had no problem retaining the carried interest loophole at a cost 
to the Treasury of $20 billion. I remember during the campaign when 
Candidate Donald Trump railed against the carried interest loophole as 
a giveaway to Wall Street that was unfair to American workers. Again 
and again, Candidate Trump promised to kill this loophole, but 
President Trump now enthusiastically supports keeping it in the tax 
bill.
  Yesterday at the White House, Republican leaders and President Trump 
celebrated the tax bill, while at the same time, many in the majority 
party insist that the Federal Government can't afford to help 9 million 
children who depend on the CHIP program and tens of millions of working 
Americans who rely on community health centers or the Affordable Care 
Act for access to healthcare.
  Well, according to a study by the bipartisan Joint Committee on 
Taxation released this week, by the time many of the provisions of this 
tax bill expire in 2027, large corporations and the wealthiest 
Americans will continue to enjoy the massive permanent tax cuts because 
those cuts are not set to expire, but almost every income group below 
$75,000 will see tax increases by 2027.
  Make no mistake--this tax bill is a betrayal of middle-class 
Americans, and it is especially a betrayal of tens of millions of 
Americans who placed their faith in President Trump.
  This tax bill is also a case of sadly misplaced priorities. The 
majority in Congress have been single-mindedly focused on passing this 
bill at every step, adding more and more giveaways to large 
corporations, instead of working across the aisle to focus on the needs 
of the middle class. Meanwhile, they have shortchanged the Children's 
Health Insurance Program, they have shortchanged community health 
centers, and they have shortchanged the Special Diabetes Program. They 
have caused hospitals and clinics across my State and across America to 
begin the process of reducing their services. This really demonstrates 
a lack of understanding and a total disregard for the needs and 
priorities of so many Americans.
  Yesterday, Republican leaders and the President celebrated the 
passage of their misguided tax bill, but Senators who care deeply about 
regular order and bipartisanship in this body are not celebrating. 
Americans concerned about our national debt and our children's future 
are not celebrating. Americans who see growing income inequality as a 
threat to our democracy--a threat made far worse by this tax bill--are 
not celebrating either. And parents of the 9 million children who rely 
on the Children's Health Insurance Program are dreading notifications 
from their States that their children will no longer have health 
insurance. These families aren't celebrating during this holiday season 
either.
  As I said earlier, the debate on this bill is over, but I intend to 
continue to speak out against this very damaging tax legislation. I 
pledge to continue to speak out in support of the real needs of working 
people across America, including the need for affordable healthcare.
  In the new year ahead, I certainly hope to be able to work with 
Senators on both sides of the aisle to address these urgent needs. The 
American people deserve better than this legislation. They also deserve 
a Senate that values bipartisanship, that values cooperation and 
compromise and the service of all Americans, not just the largest 
corporations and the wealthiest in this country.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Utah is 
recognized.

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