Mr. Coons mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from delaware. Mr. Coons i ask unanimous consent that the proceedings under the quorum call be vitiated and upon the conclusion of my remarks, the senator from rhode island be recognized prpb withouthe presiding officer . The quorum call is lifted. Mr. Coons i rise today to express my deep concern with the tax reform bill that the Senate Finance committee is likely to approve later this week. The latest version of this massive tax bill which will impact every single american was only released to the public late tuesday night, less than 48 hours later, the finance committee is ramming through this bill on a Party Line Vote without any hearings and without a thorough review of the bill. I strongly disagree with this process, with this closeddoor process of developing the substance of the bill which skews the benefits to the wealthy at the expense of middleclass families and with this bills irresponsible cost of 1. 7 trillion over ten years. But i also want to tell my colleagues and the president that there is still an opportunity for us to do the right thing and to Work Together on tax reform. We should follow the example of the last time there was successful tax reform enacted by congress. This was led by a republican by republican president ronald reagan, tip oneal and members of both parties who worked together back in 1986 to pass major tax reform legislation. Sure, they had strong disagreements, but they held lengthy public debates, compromised on both sides of the aisle and eventually passed a major tax reform bill that was bipartisan, was fair, and did not add to our deficits and National Debt. For some reason my republican colleagues seem to have forgotten the example of the last time that the Congress Actually passed tax reform. It happened because both parties worked together. It happened because both parties compromised. And while i believe there is still time for us to undertake this approach, what were seeing right now is the exact opposite. Mr. President , i think that is a big mistake. When im on the train back to wilmington or when im at home in my state of delaware, hearing from my constituents, my message about this bill is simple. Im worried what this bill will do to our Fiscal Health as a country and the middle class and you should be, too. Let me start by quoting a story from the Washington Post today whose headline reads, quote, Senate Tax Bill cuts taxes of wealthy and hikes taxes on families earning under 75,000 over a decade. Let me repeat that. The Senate Tax Bill cuts the taxes of the wealthy and hikes taxes on families earning under 75,000. This story, mr. President , is based on a report from the nonpartisan joint commission on taxation which shows that the claims from President Trump and my republican colleagues that this bill is all about tax relief for the middle class or simply are simply wrong. A quote again from this story, by the year 2027, americans earning 30,000 to 75,000 a year, solidly middleclass folks, would be forced to pay more in taxes even though people earning over 100,000 would continue to get substantial tax cuts. Unfortunately, though, thats not the end of my concerns with this legislation. Im also alarmed by how much this bill would add to our nations budget deficits and by the longterm impacts it would have on our debt. According to the nonpartisan congressional budget office, this tax bill, this republicanonly tax bill, will cost over 1. 7 trillion over ten years. Thats 1. 7 trillion with a t. What happened to my colleagues who spent years talking about the dangers posed by a growing National Debt . Now, these very same senators and representatives are willing to put almost 2 trillion on our nations credit card. Its an astounding figure, more than twice as large as the emergency stimulus package Congress Passed in 2009 to prevent the next great depression. Its more than twice as much as the much maligned socalled bailout that congress authorized to prevent the collapse of the financial system. What does 1. 7 trillion buy us . What is the great return on je. That would justify barring 1. 7 trillion mostly from china in a time of near record low unemployment . Speaker of the house paul ryan publicly bragged that their tax plan would produce one million jobs. That sounds good, but not when you consider the cost. My math may not be great but if you spend 1. 7 trillion to get a million jobs, thats 1. 5 million per job. Thats not a great return on investment. To add insult to injury, the majority believes they can use this bill to also cut access to health care for millions of americans because they decided the last moment to include a repeal of the Affordable Care acts individual mandate, a critical part of that bill which expwiews me that law excuse me that law which helps a healthy risk pool. Those who actually work in health care know this is a bad idea. Thats why the american medical association, the American Academy of family decisions, the American Hospital association, the american and Americas Health insurance plans have all come out against the inclusion of individual mandate repeal in this bill saying, quote, eliminating the individual mandate by itself will result in a significant increase in premiums, which would substantially increase the number of uninsured americans. Mr. President , the nonpartisan c. B. O. Agrees and found that repealing the mandate will cost 13 Million People to lose their health care by 2027 and average premiums would increase by 10 each year. The inclusion of the mandate repeal to pay for Corporate Tax cuts will hurt middleclass families across our country. Its politics at its worst, throwing aside the needs of our constituents to ensure that a small group of the wealthy get wealthier. Thats because at the core of this bill is based on a premise proven false time and again that tax cuts for the richest americans and most profitable corporations will somehow trickle down to help the majority of working americans. We know thats not how our economy has actually worked, even president reagans own budget director David Stockman said yesterday this bill isnt going to increase wages for the middle class. The senate bill proposes we cut the top corporate rate nearly in half. Exempt more wealthy individuals from the estate tax which impacts only the top 0. 2 of americans. Repeal the alternative minimum tax which affects those making hundreds of thousands annually and cut tax rates for those earning over a million. All together the core elements of the plan amount to 1. 7 trillion in tax cuts and my republican colleagues are simply asking us to trust them that the benefits will somehow reach the middle class. That isnt enough to prove this bill being rushed through in todays markup is bad policy, my colleagues in the majority went one step further in this latest version by eliminating all tax breaks for middleclass families in eight years while making the tax cuts for corporations permanent. This means that millions of middleclass families will see a tax hike in the future in order to fund permanen permanency fore tax breaks. Thats just not right. So, mr. President , heres what i think we should do. Lets slow down. Lets Work Together. Republicans and democrats, to pass a bill thats actually good for all americans. I believe we can get that done. I think it is our job and our duty. And we dont have to start from scratch. There are bipartisan ideas. There are introduced bipartisan tax bills that could make our code simpler and fairer and more effective. And ill just mention two examples of bills ive introduced. One with republican senator Shelly Capito and another with pat roberts which encourages manufacturers to use made in america parts and incentivize companies that invent something here to make it here. Ive introduced another bill with republican senator jerry moran. Its got eight bipartisan cosponsors and with republican congressman ted poe that would alter the tax code to boost every aspect of American Energy industry from oil and gas to the latest renewable and clean energy technologies. Mr. President , these are just a few ideas but they represent a simple truth that we can and should Work Together on tax reform instead of making this one more pointless partisan battle. The same thing is true for our Health Care System. The American People have overwhelmingly said they want a bipartisan and open process to fix health care, not a one party scheme by either party that throws our system into chaos with no plan to replace it. So i encourage President Trump and Republican Leaders to stop trying to pass tax reform with only republicans and to reach across the aisle to work with democrats and pass something we can all get behind. Mr. President , while i appreciated the opportunity to talk today about the very real need for bipartisan tax reform that helps working families grow the economy and doesnt increase our debt, id like to turn to another important topic. The impending departure from my office of megan oneal, my director of scheduling. Megan has been a part of our office for more than five years. She leaves later this month for an exciting new opportunity in new york city. Megan is quite simply one of the most capable, resourceful, intelligent, effective, and kind people i have ever had the honor of knowing or working with. One of the most well worn sayings here in washington is that everyone is replaceable. Well, that may be true for me and it may be true for you and it may be true for many others here. It is simply not true of megan. She is truly irreplaceable. I owe megan a huge debt of gratitude for years of service to my office, to delaware, and to our country. Many of us who have worked with her will gather to thank her and wish her well, but i also wanted to take a few minutes to talk about and probably embarrass this remarkable woman. She is from nearby chevy chase, maryland, but more importantly at least in my opinion, she graduated from the university of delaware as a fighting blue hen with a degree in economics and international relations. She interned in my will pington office during her senior year and quickly became a staff favorite. She moved to washington and i hired her at a staff assistant working at the front office in my d. C. Office, a particularly demanding job juggling visiting constituents, constant phone calls, supervising interns and she proved herself to be mature and capable and i promoted her several times in quick succession until she took over as my director of scheduling in august of 2015. Over the course of her time in my office, ive come to deeply respect her as a professional. But mr 0 importantly to admire but more importantly to admire her as a person. In addition to being competent and quick on her feet, it is megans boundless optimism that i will most miss. Regardless of how stressful, jampacked and uncertain a day will be, megan is always able to ensure that everything gets done, that every constituent is heard, every important issue is raised understand that this senator doesnt lose his mind. Megan is also famous for her seemingly permanent smile and sunny disposition. Some of her colleagues in my office chimed in with a few anecdotes. Oftentimes i was told throughout the day megan will announce shes off to get a fun drink which might sound like a marguerite at that but is always a raspberry. She also loves to travel but one thing that makes her different is 245 when she has a trip upcoming, she is just excited to point it out minute by minute. I cant talk about her without mentioning her family. She speaks frequently and lovingly about her parents and her young brother. As anyone who knows macon is well aware, each summer she is a key part of oneil week and she joins her family in beautiful beth knee beach, delaware. Mr. President , anyone who understands the senate knows how essential schedulers are to everything that goes on here, no half has a more challenging or complex role. We senators as big vow cab lears but the most important word a scheduler says is no. And megan mastered the art of saying no, in a firm, professional, appropriate way, even when this senator seems to always want to say yes. Schedulers wear too many hats to count. Theyre political advise,psychologists, diplomats, managers and air traffic controllers. They work as hard or harder than anyone else here but so often go unseen or unherald. Maybe thats why senate schedulers are a very tightnight group. Megan often speaks with great fondness ants respect for her counterparts in other Senate Offices and it doesnt is surprise me they think highly of her. One of megans counterparts said she is always quick to share advice and has been a great sows of support when any of her colleagues need kind words. She is nice and compassionate. Megans compassion is at the end of the day that makes her such an incredible person and irreplaceable part of our team. Regardless of who someone may be, when they work with megan, theyre treated with dignity and respect. Time and again ive heard from people so grateful for her generosity, patience, and kindness, and ive seen her help appeared stick up for her colleagues even when that was difficult to do. So, mr. President , let me close by simply saying to my friend and colleague, megan oneil, thank you. Thank you for everything youve done, for me, for your colleagues, for our friends in the senate, for the state of delaware and our country. The senate is a group of hardworking people, but even among them you have stood out and we will all miss you dearly. Thank you. Mr. Reed mr. President . The presiding officer the senator rhode island is recognized. Mr. Reed thank you, mr. President. Mr. President , it is our responsibility to ensure that future generations will have greater opportunity and greater security than we inherited from our parents and our forebearers. To accomplish this, we must put aside political expedience and take a sober look at the health of our National Economy and our ability to keep our commitment at home and around the world. I rise to urge my colleagues to reject the partisan and fiscally irresponsible republican tax proposals and the socalled tax cuts and jobs act. When we strip away the rosy but false Economic Projections and ideologically motivated economic theories that republicans have been using to hype this bill, it is clear that this bill trades away our nations longterm Economic Health and wellbeing of working americans the poor, the sick, and the old in order to benefit the wealthy. Moreover, this bill will take us trillions of dollars deeper into debt at a time when the cost of 16 years of debtfinanced wars continue to mount. Republicans owe it to our country and to future generations who will be stuck with the multitrilliondollar cost of this bill to go back to the drawing board and produce a balanced and permanent, bipartisan path forward on our nations broken tax code. It does not take an economist to see that the republican tax bill is an historic 1. 5 trillion transfer of wealth from poor and working americans to the very wealthiest among us. But a few of its glaring injustices are worth mentioning. According to the center for budget and policy priorities, it gives over twice as much tax relief to millionaires as it does to americans making under 50,000. Just 5,000 of the wealthiest American Families will receive hundreds of billions of dollars over a decade in the form of estate tax breaks. At a time when income and wealth inequality in this country are at historic highs, this transfer of wealth through the estate tax alone requires us to go back to the drawing board. On the other hand, the bill raises taxes on 19. 4 million households earning under 200,000 by as much as 500. 46 of households making under 100,000 and 50,000 and 50 , rather, of households making under 75,000, will either see their taxes go up over the next decade or see no change at all, and thats just the tip of the iceberg. While tax cuts for big corporations are made permanent, the republican bill plans to claw back what little it gives to everyone else after a few years. Setting up even bigger tax hikes to the middle class down the line. And this does not even big to return the return the trumpcare which has been added to this bill, which will take away health care to millions of americans and drive up cost to the poor, sick, and elderly. This bill is a bad investment and frankly it is one that we can illafford. According to the pennwharton budget model provided by the university of pennsylvania, the bill will reduce federal revenue by as much as 1. 7 trillion and inincrease our National Debt by 2 trillion in the tenyear budget window. By 2040, this becomes a 3. 6 billion trillion in lost federal revenue and up to 6. 9 trillion in debt. We would take on all this debt for an estimated 0. 4 to 0. 9 boost in g. D. P. For 1. 5 trillion, we could, on the other hand, make needed repairs to our streets and highways across america, creating tens of thousands of jobs in the process. We could pay off every americans credit card or student loan or lift every american above the poverty line for years. Instead, this bill would put yet another massive charge on americas credit card that will not create jobs, will not trickle down, and most certainly will not pay for itself. We still have a 5. 6 trillion in deficits and Interest Payments from the bush tax cuts to prove it. With over 20 trillion in National Debt, it is long past time to stop experimenting with peoples lives and livelihoods to prove yet again there are no merits to supplyside economics. America has pressing needs and very real bills coming due. Mr. President , id like to spend the remaining time of my remarks addressing something about which we have heard far too little in this debate, and that is the impact on our national