Mr. President , the first motion the senate will vote on is a straightforward proposition. The motion says lets send this bill back to the senate on a bipartisan basis and come up with a plan that actually works for the middle class. I will wrap up just by recapping the republican rhetoric on his tax plan. First it was said to be a guaranteed middleclass tax cuts. Then it was merely focused on the middle class. Next it was an average tax cut across a variety of income cohort. But now, the numbers are actually in. Republicans want to run up enough red ink to threaten medicare and Social Security and still raise taxes on more than half of the middle class. The senate on a bipartisan basis can do better than this. I urge my colleagues to support this proposal, to send the bill back and come back h on a bipartisan basis with tax reform that actually works for the middle class. I yeild back. The question on motion. Nay. Is there a sufficient second . The clerk will call the roll. [roll call] [roll call] [roll call] [roll call] senators voting in the affirmative. Senators voting in the negative. [roll call] [roll call] [roll call] [roll call] [roll call] [roll call] [roll call] [roll call] [roll call] [roll call] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] mr. President. R. Majority leader. On behalf of of karen for amendment 1618. Quickly for the amendment. Amendment 1618. And i asked the reading of the amendment. Without objection . The senate will resume consideration of hr one with debate remaining. Are there any debate time tonight counts against the underlying bill. Is there objection . Without objection. I asked unanimous consent that a correction to appointments made on november 28, 2007 be printed in the record. Without objection. With the information of the senate this is lclerical and does not change membership of the Frederick Douglass bicentennial commission made by the appointments. Without objection. Ask i asked unanimous consent on 344 submitted earlier today. The clerk will report to request Senate Resolution 344 honoring the life achievements of doctor Robert Lawrence junior. Is there objection preceding the measure . Without objection. I further asked the resolution be agreed to end the motion to reconsider the made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. Without objection. We proceed with immediate consideration of hrt 28 from the house. We will report the amendment. The ending of claimant training and related Services Demonstration act of 1992 and so forth and further purposes. Objection . Without objection. Asked unanimous consent that this be read at their time and emotion to reconsider be laid upon the table. Without objection. I asked unanimous consent for 30 s2 54. The clerk will report. Number 30 as 254 a bill to amend a native American Program in 1974 and so forth. Objection to proceeding . Without objection. Asked unanimous consent to hold an amendment of the desk be agreed to the bilby amendment as amended. And that it be laid upon the table. Without objection. Asked unanimous consent for immediate consideration of number 33 s302. The clerk will report to. Number 33 figure 2 oobjections . Without objection. Asked unanimous consent that the bill be considered one third time and cost. Without objection. Asked unanimous consent of the disenate proceed immediate consideration of 104 as 245. Clerk will report to. One april 2, 1945 the bill to amend the indian Tribal Development and Self Determination act of 2005 and further purposes. I asked unanimous consent that this be considered and read one third time. And emotion to reconsider be laid upon the table. Without objection. Asked unanimous consent of the senate with immediate consideration while 5s 343. The clerk will report to request a bill to repeal laws relating to indians. Ng objection to proceeding . Without objection. Asked that this be read one third time the clerk will report. 193 669 a bill to authorize a secretary of the interior to access sanitary conditions. Without objection. Asked unanimous consent that this be read one third time in a motion to reconsider be laid upon the table. Without objection. Asked unanimous consent for immediate consideration of 209 s7 72. The clerk will report. A bill to amend the protect act for Indian Tribes eligible for amber alert grants. Objection elto proceeding . Without objection. The table. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 247, s. 825. The presiding officer the clerk will report. The clerk calendar number 247, s. 825, a bill to provide for the conveyance of Certain Property to the Southeast Alaska Regional Health consortium located in sit ca, alaska, and for other purposes. The presiding officer is there objection to proceeding to the measure . Without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i ask unanimous consent the committeereported substitute amendment be agreed to, the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 249, s. 1285. The presiding officer the clerk will report. The clerk calendar number 249, s. 1285, a bill to allow the con fed rated tribes to lease or transfer certain lands. The presiding officer is there objection . Without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i ask unanimous consent that the committeereported amendments be agreed to, the bill as the time that the two leaders is reserved in morning business be closed the previous order. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell so if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask it stand adjourned under the previous order following the remarks of senators portman, value hollen, warren and wyden. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Portman mr. President . The presiding officer the senator ohio. Mr. Portman i ask unanimous consent for six additional fullaccess floor passes to be you a equally divided between the minority and majority leaderser majority for the following staffers, randy herndon, zach rdasel, ryan abraham, adam coroso, and sarah snyder. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Portman tonight i want to talk about an opportunity we have before us here in the United States senate and that is for tax reform that can truly help our economy and help the middleclass families we represent. Its a onceinageneration opportunity. The last time we reformed our opportunity in any substantial way was 31 years ago. Ronald reagan was president. Pete rose was still playing for the cincinnati reds. Thats how long ago it was. But that 1986 tax reform gave our economy a muchneeded shot in the arm and it led to more jobs and higher wages in the 1980s and 190s. Now 31 years later after a decade of disappointing growth and flat wages, we need that shot in the arm again. We need a tax code that better reflects the needs of todays workers, todays families, and our 21s century economy. Theres bipartisan agreement that the tax code is broken, hopelessly broken, and it is up to congress to fix it. No one else can. Through the tax cuts and jobs act before us, weve got a job in the congress to create a better economy and future and weve got get this done for the people we represent t starts with tax cuts for the middle class. While the economy as seen some improvement recently and i saw some good numbers today for the last quarters growth the people i represent, hardworking ohioans, people across the country are not feeling these benefits of a growing economy. For more than a decade now, expenses have increased, including health care costs, which have increased the highest, atd a time when wages have been flat. When you take wages into when you take inflation into account, wages have stayed relatively flat for almost two decades. That increase in expenses and flat wages is the middleclass squeeze and people are feeling it. For years my colleagues on both sides of the aisle have been calling for middleclass tax cuts to help easy thisrd about. The tax cuts and jobs act will actually deliver it. The proposal helps us in a lot of ways, but three main ways. First, it has a doubling of the standard deduction. This is a doubling for families of 12,000 to 24,000. This means for a lot of families in america the first 24,000 is a zero tax bracket. Twothirds of ohioans, by the way, already use the standard deduction and the estimate now is we are doubling it, that over 90 of ohioans will use that standard deduction. That helps to keep the tax bill down but is also a tremendous simplifying of our tax code. Second is the doubling of the Child Tax Credit. Thats in this legislation. The American Dream starts with the American Family and parents shouldnt have to reconsider starting a family because of the financial burden that comes with it. This doubling of the Child Tax Credit will help working families afford child care and will help strengthen middleclass Family Budgets all across the country. It also includes increasing the refundability of that tax credit for taxpayers who dont have any income tax liability. Third, of course, is lowering tax rates and there are tax rates that are lowered all across the board for middleclass families. The tax cuts in this proposal will save an ohio family at the Median Income level 2,375 a year. That almost 2,400 a year is a big deal. A lot of people i represent and others represent here in this chamber are living paycheck to paycheck, and this matters. More money staying in the pockets of working families to make that car payment, to pay for health care, maybe put a little money aside for retirement is a big deal. We also know from the Tax Foundation that the lower rates in this plan will benefit families across middleclass income brackets. For example, a family with two i had cans making 15,000 a year will see a36 tax breakers a 36 reduction in their tax liability. For a family with two kids making about 85,000 a year, there is a 25 reduction in their tax liability. So theres tax relief across the board, but the biggest proportional tax cut goes to the folks who immediate it the most. This chart shows this. For people who are in these income at that time egories, 20,000 to 50,000, 50,000 to 150,000, 100,000 and above, right now paying 4. 3 in taxes from 20,000 to 50,000, under this proposal according to the joint committee on taxation and the Tax Foundation, it goes town to 4. 1 . From 50,000 to 100,000, the burden is also lowered from 6. 9 to from 16. 9 to 16. 7 . For those people at 100,000 and above, the burden right is now about 78. . The top ten percent pay about 70 of the taxes. That actually goes up from 78. 7 to 78. 9 . So this notion that weve heard today that somehow these middleclass tax cuts are not proportion legal alien helping those at the lower end, thats simply not true. This is the data. Go on jct committee of the whole house on taxation. Gov, and you can look at your situation and determine how doubling the standard deduction, Child Tax Credit and reducing tax rates are benefit you. The biggest cuts go to the people who need it the most. In total when these are implemented, it is estimated that approximately three million americans who are currently paying taxes will no longer be paying income taxes. Theyll be off the rolls altogether. Thats ta tax cuts for middlecs families, who are families who need it the most. Some of my colleagues on the other side of of the aisle have suggested that our plan will hurt families with incomes under 30,000 because there is a joint committee on taxation report that because of arcane budget rules, counts repeal, the individual mandate as a tax hike. This is an interesting perspective, but i reject it because i dont think stopping the obamacare individual mandate and people choosing not to buy Health Insurance and, therefore, not having both the cost of the Affordable Care act and the Obamacare Tax credits that come with the health care, is a tax hike. What theyre saying is because somebody doesnt choose to buy health care, partly because its too expensive and, therefore, doesnt get the tax credits that come with that, that somehow thats a tax hike. That doesnt make sense to me and i dont think it makes sense to most americans. When the joint committee on taxation did say repeatedly at our Committee Markup is that when you dont consider this issue again, choosing not to buy health care insurance, a hike that our plan does give every single income group, including those under 30,000, a tax cut. As noted earlier, the biggest percentage tax cuts go to those with lower incomes and thats appropriate. Those are the folks that need it the most. What we do know is that the individual mandate right now is an onerous tax by itself. The Supreme Court has called it a tax. Its a tax on people that disproportionately affects lower and middleincome class americans. In fact, 80 of the individual mandate falls on people making less than 50,000 a year and their family. In owe that figures is about in ohio that figure is about 83p83 of that individual mandate tax falls on peoples with households of less than 50,000 a year. Getting rid of this penalty removes the burden on working families and then we use the savings from that, that the Congressional Budget Office says we get from this, to increase the Child Tax Credit and reduce tax rates. Providing immediate relief to the Family Budget is incredibly important but beyond that, the tax reforms on the business side will make American Workers and companies more competitive, create more jobs and better wages understand that to me is just as important in terms of helping middleclass families in my home state of ohio. Why . Because when you reform the business tax code to make it competitive, the benefit goes to workers and workingclass families all over this country. The u. S. Has the highest Corporate Tax rate now in the industrialized world. One study by the bipartisan or nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that workers bear 70 of the burden of our Corporate Tax rate being so heist others say it is less than that. Others say it is more than that. But all say that workers benefit. If we lower that rate below the average of the other industrialized company, our workers will benefit through higher wages and better benefits. And, by the way, that benefits middleclass families well beyond these direct tax cuts that were talking about earlier. A recent study by ernst young, the accounting firm, said that it we had had the tax rate that we have in this proposal, a 20 tax rate on these businesses, if wed had that in place since 2004, there would be 4,700 more u. S. Companies today. Let me repeat that. 4,700 companies that were American Companies have become Foreign Companies because of our tax code. If we had put this place these changes years ago, those companies would still be American Companies. We did some research on this, some investigation in the permanent subcommittee on investigations over the past few years and we determined that in fact when companies are taken over by a Foreign Company because of our tax code or when u. S. Companies choose to go overseas and invert because of our tax code, what happens . We lose jobs and we lose investment in this country. It matters and it matters a lot to the communities where those employees are lost and where those businesses have left. The 20 tax rate is going to mean more jobs and more investment coming to this country. Its also true there will be more Foreign Investment here. Companies now that are trying to decide are they going to invest in america or are they going to invest in some other country with a lower tax rate and with the expensing we have in this bill to be able to write down new investments that theyre make something going to encourage them to make an investment here in the United States rather than other countries. That will increase jobs, too. The Tax Foundation estimates, by the way, that because of this new investment, the higher productivity that comes with it, because of this tax reform proposal, we will create nearly one million new american jobs and more than 35,000 jobs alone in my home state of ohio. In addition to providing relief for middleclass families and making this business rate more competitive for American Companies and workers, the tax reform does a lot to level the Playing Field internationally. This is important. Right now American Workers are forced to compete with one hand tied behind their back because of our tax code, a broken tax code is something that must be fixed because it is irresponsible to tell the American Worker, you have avenue got to get out there and compete, but guess p wha but guess what . Your foreign competitor has a big advantage over you. Companies are actually encouraged to move overseas and makes keep their profits overseas makes no sense. Theres between 2. 5 trillion and 3 trillion of earnings trapped overseas because of this outdated tax code. Any that. That message can come back here and be invested here. The tax cuts and jobs act says to those companies, we want your money back here. We want you to invest in america. The result will lift the economic condition of our entire country. This week, 137 of the countrys leading economists wrote in an open letter to congress in support of this tax reform bill. These former heads of Government Economic agencies, leaders of Economic Policy groups, and lieding academics said, quite simply, and i quote, Economic Growth will accelerate if the tax cuts and jobs act passes, leading to more jobs, higher wages, and a better standard of living for the american. People. Thats 137 economists in an open letter. I encourage you to take a look at it online. These are people who understand what the impact is going to be on policy we make here on decisions being made all around the country. We can debate the exact growth amount that will result from this bill and well have a spirit of debate on that this week. But we all have to agree that this will help to grow the economy if were following basic economic theory. And by the way, the letter also states, and i quote, 1 trillion in new tax revenue for the federal government can be generated by a. 4 increase of g. D. P. Growth. End quote. What they are e saying is if there is a slight increase in growth because of the tax reform bill because of the number we have to use here that this will result in actual new revenue coming into the government to pay down the debt. Im convinced thats going to happen for a very simple reason. We have to use a very low number of Economic Growth. Under our rules, we have to use a c. B. O. , Congressional Budget Office number, of 1. 9 Economic Growth over the next ten years. Whether the average over the past 30 years has been 2. 5 , the average last quarter we just learned today was 3. 3 . The average the quarter before that, the second quarter, was 3. 1 . This tax reform proposal will help to actually increase Economic Growth. But even if you dont believe that, 1. 9 Economic Growth is unacceptable. We cannot accept that as a country. We can and must do better than that. And we will do better than that, and this tax reform proposal will be one reason. So im convinced that the. 4 increase of the 2. 3 is still very conservative and that we will be able to do better than that as we have over the past 30 years, as we have traditionally in this country. When you hear my colleagues on the other side talk about this bill being bad for the deficit, you ought to think about that. It means they are resigning themselves to 1. 9 Economic Growth. That to me is not acceptable for our country and i dont think thats what we will see. Of the 44 trillion in new revenue estimated to be coming in over the next ten years, out of that amount were suggesting 1. 5 trillion be a tax cut relative to that, again, very low Economic Growth of 1. 9 . About a third of that, by the way, is by simply using what we should use which is the right policy baseline so you end up with about 1 trillion in tax relief. Again over ten years with 44 trillion coming in and again with what the economists are saying about it generating more revenue for Economic Growth im convinced were going to do better than that 1. 9 . I believe the progrowth changes this bill will help drive Economic Growth in ways it helps every American Family. We are in a position now if we pass this bill to be able to help all the people who are now looking at a tough time making ends meet is difficult for a lot of People Living paycheck to paycheck. But also it will help to grow the economy generally. Businesses and organizations all around the country are supporting this legislation because they believe it is going to help American Families. We have about 120 groups already as of yesterday who are supporting us. The National Federation of independent businesses which is a group that represents most of the Small Businesses in america. The Family Business council representing a lot of Small Businesses that benefit greatly from the changes we have not just with the Corporation Rate but also with how we deal with companies that are considered to be passthrough companies, smaller companies. The National Retail federation is strongly in support of this bill. The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council also supports this reform plan and the opportunities it has to create more Economic Growth for Small Businesses to let them be more competitive. So you can look at some of the groups here, some of the roughly 120 groups that are supporting this legislation. Why . Because they know its going to help big businesses will benefit and be more competitive. Therefore their workers can compete. Small workers are going to be able through these growth policies to grow and be able to be more entrepreneurial to be able to come up with more innovations and to be able to expand h employment. We can also estimate savings for the middleclass family in every tax bracket. But what cant be measured as easily is the economist boost this is going to have for everybody. Were giving families freedom to spend more of their own money how they see fit. Were putting faith in american entrepreneurs to comite in compete in the global market, were creating a fairer tax system that creates jobs in this country rather than overseas. Thats good stuff. The tax cuts and jobs act is made in america and its made for america. We need to come together now as a congress, and i hope well get support from the other side of the aisle as well to pass this once in a generation legislation to benefit our country. Thank you, mr. President. I yield back my time. Ms. Warren mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from massachusetts. Ms. Warren mr. President , Senate Republicans are about 24 hours away from passing a bill that would make middleclass families in this country pay more taxes so that big corporations and millionaires can pay less. Now a bill like that would never really make sense, but it really, really doesnt make sense right now. Since 1980, corporate profits have shot through the roof while wages for working people have remained pretty much the same. And with corporate profits up and family incomes flat, whos paying the cost of running the government . Well, thanks to congress, over the past 50 years corporations have gone from picking up about 25 of what it costs to run the government to picking up about 9 . Or to say it another way, hardworking families now pick up a much bigger share of the cost of running our government. Now i dont care whether youre a democrat or a republican, this just isnt fair. Corporations are wallowing in profits while hardpressed families are picking up the bill for our military, for our government agencies, for homeland security, for our infrastructure, and for Everything Else that we have to pitch in to pay for. And here comes the republican tax bill which would make a bad situation worse. The republican tax bill will flash taxes on corporations even further and raise taxes on millions of working families. You know, it is hard to comprehend how deeply unfair that is. A survey released last may by the Federal Reserve found that 44 of American Families, just a bit under half, dont have enough slack in their budget to cover a 400 emergency expense. If the transmission blows up or if a kid gets sick or if the fridge stops working, these families are just plain out of luck. And these are the same families that the republicans have targeted to pay more in taxes under the republican plan. In trying to sell a bill that is deeply unfair, republicans have landed on a tried and true strategy. Just lie about it. The first big lie is that the p plan will super charge Economic Growth. Spoiler alert it wont. Weve seen this movie before, and we know how it ends. There is not one, not one single credible projection that says this plan will have any meaningful impact on the growth of the american economy. One group of economists after another has looked at this bill and said it wont do a darned thing to help the economy grow. Even wall street banks which stand to pocket billions of dollars in tax giveaways from this bill have grudgingly had to admit that the bill wont lead to any growth. Barkleys bank said, quote, a permanent boost to growth remains unlikely. And Goldman Sachs said, quote, we find a boost to g. D. P. Growth of. 1 to. 2 in 2018 to 2019, and smaller amounts in subsequent years. The second big lie is that if we just give corporations more money, they will surely do us the favor of raising wages or creating more jobs. Weve seen that movie before too. Over the last 30 years, corporate profits have exploded and companies have not trickled down those profits to workers. They didnt do it before and they wont do it after the republicans give away even more money to these giant corporations. But you dont have to take my word for it. The top executives at the companies have already admitted as much. Bank of america and Merrill Lynch surveyed 300 c. E. O. s about what they would do with their tax give aways. What are they going to do with those tax giveaways . Top three responses. Pay down debt, buy back stock, fund new mergers. In other words, something for the banks, something for wealthy investors and nothing, nothing for workers. The third big lie is that the plan wont increase the National Debt. Thats just plain false. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says this bill will tack on 1. 4 trillion to the debt in the next ten years. And we all know what comes next. The same republican senators who will vote for this 1 trillion budget buster tomorrow will turn around and vote next week and say, our National Debt is just too high, and we need to cut medicare and medicaid and Social Security and Education Funding and Affordable Housing and you name it. In fact, the republican budget they passed last month tees up more than 1 trillion in cuts to those very programs. This bill raises taxes on millions of middleclass families and it doesnt create any real Economic Growth. It doesnt create any real job growth. And it explodes the National Debt. So this bill clearly is not about helping working families. So you really have to stop and ask the question, what is it about . The answer is simple. This is about republican senators paying off the rich corporate donors that helped get them elected. Its about the way that money has corrupted washington. It is about wealthy donors investing a few Million Dollars in political contributions to secure billions of dollars in tax giveaways. Heres what one of my republican colleagues said recently. If we dont pass a tax bill, quote, financial contributions will dry up. A republican member of the house was even more blunt. He said on the record that his donors told him to pass this tax bill or dont ever call them again. In other words, republicans have said to each other that they need to pass a tax giveaway to give their donors money in order to get reelected. This is a smash and grab job. The republicans are looting the u. S. Treasury so that their donors will keep funding their reelection campaigns. They dont even try to hide the corruption. And they dont worry about how many middleclass families get hurt in the caper. My take on this is pretty simple. I dont think a single middleclass family in this country should pay more in taxes so that big corporations and millionaires can pay less. I think big corporations should pay more, not less, so that we can cut taxes on working families and small small busine, so that we can make investments in fixing our roads and our bridges and our power grid and so that we can help young people reduce their student loan debt. This is about basic fairness. We can build an america where every kid has a shot at success, where every family has some measure of economic security, where every senior has enough savings to retire with dignity. We can do that, and we can start by defeating this republican tax giveaway. Thank you, mr. President. I yield the floor. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from maryland. Mr. Van hollen thank you, mr. President. Let me start by thanking the senator from massachusetts for always telling it like it is. Because what weve got before us here in the senate is going to do grave harm to our country not just next year and the year after, but for many years to come. We still have an opportunity, mr. President , to stop that from happening through our votes tomorrow. Let me also say at the outset that we need to enact tax reform in the United States of america. We need to simplify. We need to streamline. We need to reform our tax code. We need to get rid of all of those tax loopholes that have been put in our tax code by powerful special interests that have been able to hire highpriced lobbyists and get something in our tax code not because its good public policy, not because its good for the majority of americans, but because its good for some group of special interests. So we need real tax reform. Thats not what the bill in front of us does. What this bill does is take a tax code that is already stacked in favor of the most powerful and the most wealthy and rig it even more in favor of the most powerful and most wealthy. And that is hard to do. You have to work at doing that. And our republican colleagues have succeeded in taking something that was already stacked in favor of those groups and making it even worse. And that, mr. President , is why we see this effort to jam this bill through the United States senate. In just a few weeks, because our republican colleagues know that the more the American Public sees this bill, the more they will hate this bill, the more they will realize that its going to mean their taxes going up in many cases and harm to the american economy. You know, we debated the effort to repeal the Affordable Care act in the senate, not for a long, long time but at least over a couple month period. What happened is that debate went on, more and more people around the country engaged, and all the nurses and all the doctors and all the hospitals and i mean rural hospitals, suburban hospitals, urban hospitals, they all said thats bad for our health care. And this senate at the end of the day did the right thing. Unfortunately, the Lesson Learned was not to get the input from the American Public but try to rush something through before people could figure out exactly whats in it, and thats whats happening here in the senate today and tomorrow, and just as one example of the harm this bill will do that hasnt gotten a lot of attention, i want to talk about what this bill does in its changes to how we tax u. S. Corporations that have operations overseas. These are big multinational corporations that have operations in the United States, but also have the ability to move their plant and equipment overseas and hire people overseas instead of hiring americans here at home. And there is a provision in this Senate Republican bill thats going to dramatically increase the incentives for u. S. Multinational corporations to move operations and jobs overseas. And heres why. Because under this bill, American Corporations that are doing business here in the United States will pay a 20 Corporate Tax rate. It reduces the Corporate Tax rate down to 20 , but also says something else. If you are an American Corporation and you move your operations overseas, the earnings, the profits you make on your overseas operations pay zero percent u. S. Tax rate. So immediately you have an incentive to move your business from Baltimore City or from any other city in this country, any other place in this country to another place that has a lower tax rate. So, for example, ireland has a 12. 5 tax rate, so you move your business to ireland, youre going to be paying 12. 5 on your profits instead of the 20 youre paying here. You move to hungary, youre going to pay 9 on the profits you earn in hungary, whereas you would have paid 20 on your profits if you keep those operations here in the United States. So immediately you have an incentive to move those operations overseas. And even if you move those operations to a country that has a higher tax rate than, say, ireland or hungary, there are easy ways to put those profits that you earn in a place like the u. K. Or japan and put them in a lower tax area like the Cayman Islands or bermuda. So this right off the bat creates a perverse additional incentive to put american jobs overseas. So our republican colleagues say okay, not to worry. We have a we have a fix to this issue. Were going to create this minimum u. S. Tax on large profits of overseas operations. In other words, if youre a u. S. Corporation and you move to ireland, you can make a certain amount of money there, but if you go over a certain amount, were going to put a minimum american tax on top of the tax you pay in ireland. The problem, mr. President , this is a problem when you rush through a bill like this. The problem is the cure is worse than the disease, and heres why. You look at this chart. Okay. The first thing you say is, you know, there is a lower tax rate in ireland than in Baltimore City, so im going to move im going to move some of my operations overseas. My plant and equipment. In fact, im going to move 10 million of investment overseas. In ireland. Now, in ireland, im going to be paying 12. 5 on my profits versus 20 here in the United States. So hey, thats a pretty good move. Now lets see if this minimum tax has any impact and what the impact will be. Well, what the republican tax bill says is that if your earnings overseas exceed 10 of your investment in tangible property whats tangible property . Plant, equipment, your factory. So if you spend 10 million and move your plant and equipment and factory overseas, youre going to be able to make a 10 profit there with no additional u. S. Tax. But if you earn more than that, lets say you earn 1. 2 million, instead of 10 return which would have been a million, aha, now this minimum tax applies but just to that excess profit. So youre now going to pay the lower tax rate in ireland on your first million but youre going to pay this 10 u. S. Surtax of 200,000 10 on the 200,000, so youre going to pay 20,000 u. S. Taxes. So what if you dont want to pay even that . And heres, heres what is so outrageous about this bill. Job if its i dont know if its intentional or unintentional. If im a u. S. Corporation, the way i fix this problem, i move another 10 million worth of plant and equipment out of maryland into ireland because when i do that, and so now i have got my first 10 Million Investment that i moved from baltimore to ireland, and im going to move another one, now as long as i keep my overall returns at 10 , im not going to pay any of that excess minimum tax. And so if my First Company has a 12 return, say the second one has an 8 return, together they have a 10 return, so i end up by moving more plant and equipment from the state of maryland to ireland, i dont even pay that minimum tax. That minimum u. S. Tax. And in fact, every time i get close to having to pay that minimum u. S. Tax, i can solve my problem by moving more american jobs overseas. That is insane, mr. President , and i hope our colleagues will take a look at this because this is going to do great damage to the american economy, and you dont have to take my word for it. You have got a lot of economists that have taken a look at this provision. Im just going to read from one. His name is edward kleinbard. He was the former chief of staff of the joint committee on taxation. We all know that committee is the professionals, they are the nonpartisan professionals that analyze these bills. Heres what he had to say. Quote, the administrations tax cut proposal is coupled with the territorial tax system which permanently exempts foreign income from taxation. This will further tilt the Playing Field in favor of foreign rather than u. S. Investment. Mr. President , i ask unanimous consent that the other quotations from economists be entered into the record. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Van hollen thank you, mr. President. Now, to add insult to injury, this is not the only part of this bill that actually tips the Playing Field in favor of our economic competitors overseas and against the American Worker and against the american taxpayer. Because if you look at the Corporate Tax cuts in this bill, they are permanent. They go on forever. Year after year, corporations will get that tax cut in the United States of america, where if youre an individual household in america, millions of middleclass taxpayers will see an immediate increase in their taxes. Some will see a small cut in their taxes for a period of time, but in the long run, those individual tax cuts go away, the Corporate Tax cuts go on forever. And of course the theory behind this is trickledown economics, right . Youre going to give the very wealthy and big corporations this tax cut, and the benefits of that are going to trickle down and lift everybody up. Mr. President , i think we know that that theory has run aground and run into the wall of reality many times over. Most recently in the early 2000s, we had the bush tax cuts. Same theory. Cut taxes for the super wealthy, and somehow the benefits are going to trickle down and lift everybody up. Ill tell you who it lifted up. The wealthy did even better. The other thing that went up was our deficit and debt. But everybody else, they were either running in place or falling behind. That was our most recent experiment in trickledown. But we also have an immediate present example of why this theory that giving big tax cuts to corporations, the idea that its going to raise wages is just dead wrong, because as we sit here tonight, American Corporations are making record profits, and thats a great thing. But guess what . Wages are flat. So increasing the aftertax profits of those corporations, theyre not going to use that extra money to raise wages. Theyre not doing it today. Theyre not doing it today. The stock market will go up. Stockholders will definitely have greater value because, hey, youre a corporation. The day after this tax bill gets passed, if it passes, your aftertax profits just went up. The stock market is doing great. The problem is most americans, the overwhelming number of americans dont benefit from that rising stock market. The people who benefit most are the folks we know at the very top, and heres the thing that i think many people will be surprised by, mr. President. A very large group of those stockholders, theyre not even american citizens. Theyre foreign stockholders, stockholders who have these investments in American Corporations. In fact, 35 of the stockholders in these corporations are foreign shares. 35 of the value of that stock. So i can tell you theyre going to be clinging the clinking the champagne glasses in capitals around the world because those very wealthy foreigners, they are going to get a big tax cut. In fact, the institute on taxation Economic Policy estimates that the value of the tax cuts to foreign stockholders just in the year 2019 will be over 30 billion. Thats in one year. Foreign stockholders. In that same year, taxes will go up by over 27 billion on american citizens in the year 2019. So this great news for the American Public. 27 billion transferred from american households into the pockets of foreign stockholders. What a great deal for the American Public. They are going to be thrilled to see that their hardearned dollars are going to increase the Bank Accounts of foreign stockholders. And this is the kind of information, mr. President , that is beginning to come out as people get a chance to look more about the consequences of this bill. This is the this is the exact reason that republicans are trying to rush this through the United States senate, because i can tell you when the American Public sees this, that their taxes are going up to pay for foreign stockholders, i think all of us agree they aint going to like that. So the problem is this is also part of a pattern. Because the Corporate Tax cuts go on forever. Those foreign stockholders, they keep getting this is just in 02019. They keep getting a big windfall, a big bonanza. But if you are an american taxpayer, you are on the short end of the stick because millions of American Families, middleclass families, will see their taxes go up right away. As i said, others may see a small tax cut originally, but it will fizzle out. So heres the overall impact. In 2019 youre going to see 13 million American Families who earn less than 200,000 a year pay higher taxes under this republican bill, 13 million families. And it gets worse from there. Because the benefits that some people get in the short term begin to fizzle out and then get snuffed out altogether at the end of ten years. So by the year 2025 its going to go from 13 millionclass American Families to 19 million middleclass families are going to be paying higher taxes. By the way, at the same time, the republican bill will give a tax cut of an average of 40,000 a year to people who make more than 1 million a year. And it gets even worse for families in and after the year 2025 because all the individual tax cuts expire, tax cuts for the foreign stockholder . They keep going on. They go on forever. By 2027, the republican plan will raise taxes on 87 million American Families. Now, mr. President , we actually just had some information come out, just released to the public this evening. This is from the joint tax committee, the joint committee on taxation. These are the folks who are the professionals who look at the impact of the tax bill. They analyze it and they let people know the facts. Heres what they say. When this bill runs its course in the year 2027, heres the bottom line. 23 of americans, households are going to see their taxes go up 16 will see their taxes go down. So more american households see their taxes go up than go down. 61 , they estimate, see virtually no changes at all. And, again, these are families, not corporations. The corporations, including those foreign stockholders, they keep seeing the benefits. Now, heres the other thing the joint committee on taxation is telling us. That of the people who get a cut you see, the largest share in any one group are people making 1 million and up. In fact, it says that of those in that category, 57 of the households will get a tax cut. Those are the millionaires. If you look at middleincome folks, much smaller percentages in those categories. Now, mr. President , i just have to ask my colleagues how it is that you can try to sell a plan as a middleclass tax cut when at the end of the day, a majority of americans excuse me, more americans are going to see their americans go up than go down . And i think the American People are going to be more and more surprised if this bill passes as to whats in it. So we have a chance to actually step back now, we have a chance to step back and take a good look at the bill and figure out which of these consequences are intended and which of these consequences are unintended. And theres time to fix some of these issues. The last point i want to make, mr. President , is that, in addition to middleclass families, millions of them who are going to have to pay more to pay for the big Corporate Tax cut, youre also going to see a number of other group of americans who are going to get hit hard. So we know that millions of people who get their Health Insurance through the exchanges are going to see their premiums go up to pay for big tax cuts for corporations. And we know even after all that, after those americans have to pay more in premiums, after millions of middleclass families are going to have to pay more, you still got a 1. 5 trillion debt. And im just going to ask my republican colleagues who ive worked with for many years and have agreed with them that we need to find a bipartisan way to reduce our deficit and debt rather than increase it, what their plan is. And heres the secret. Not really a secret actually. I invite everybody to look at the budget that passed the senate and the house of representatives because it tells you right there in the budget what the plan is to reduce some of that debt that will be increased because of tax cuts. And the proposal is right there. 1 trillion cut to medicaid over ten years, 473 billion cut to medicare over ten years, and cuts to the whole category of our budget we use to invest in education. So the bottom line, mr. President , is that this bill is going to provide a whopping tax cut to corporations, its going to have the effect of encourage and incentivizing more of those corporations to move jobs, plants, and equipment overseas, and its going to ask almost everybody else in the country to pick up the tab. That is not the kind of tax reform that the American People bargained for. And i urge my colleagues to take a step back, Work Together on a bipartisan basis, and come up with a plan that actually works for the country. I hope that can happen. And, mr. President , i yield the floor. The presiding officer under the previous order, the Senate Stands adjourned until 10 00 a. M. Tomorrow. 10 30 tomorrow. Each. I recognize the senator from utah. Mr. Hatch i thank the presiding officer. I listened to the minority leaders remarks. If anybody believes that were going to be able to Work Together closely when they just want a they had us right there at the instance of socialism just a month ago and were still right on the cusp of socialism. I hate to say it, but our democratic friends are pushing us towards sia
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