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 socialism which has never worked anywhere in the world, and its not going to work here. Their answer to everything is big government. Well, there are two different points of view here, and i have to tell you i used to be on their side when i was a young fellow, when i was raised in poverty and came up the hard way and learned a trade and became a journeyman metal lather, which was one of the most Skilled Trades at the time. I have to say that these haunting refrains were used by democrats back then too, but look at this country and the mess its in, and its in a mess because of their philosophy. Weve got to change it. I admit with him that the Business Committee isnt always right and they are not always the best to spend our money, but they are sure a lot better than than Government Spending it all the time. So much for this. Madam president , the senate will soon vote on the motion to proceed on legislation to reform our nations broken tax code and to provide significant relief for tens of millions of middleclass families. Members from both parties have worked for years on this effort, and as we move to consider this legislation, we will take another step toward accomplishing what has until recently anyway has been a bipartisan goal. I want to thank all of those who helped us advance this process, especially the members of the finance committee. I also want to thank our distinguished majority leader, senator mcconnell, for his work and leadership on this as well. We are not there yet. We have a number of steps to take, including todays vote. I dont want to put any carts ahead of any horses, but im optimistic that we can get a positive outcome today. Our tax reform bill was crafted with the primary purpose of providing tax relief to the middle class and growth to our economy. To accomplish these goals, the bill lowers individual tax rates across the board. The bill also expands a zero tax bracket by nearly doubling the standard deduction, doubling the Child Tax Credit, and increasing the Child Tax Credit refund ability, all of which refundability, all of which will give will cut taxes for millions of middleclass taxpayers. That sounds like the right thing to do to me. Some examples withs ill lus trif. Under our bill, a family of four making 73,000 a year will see their taxes go down by more than 2,000 a year. Now, thats a savings of more than 180 a month. Overall this represents a nearly 60 reduction in that families familys liability. A Single Family will pay onequarter of the federal income taxes he or she may have today, an annual reduction of almost 1,400. This is real money for these families. It will bring down credit card balance balancesles or increase their ability to save for if the future. In addition to reducing the tax burden on low to middle income families, this bill will make filing taxes simpler. According to j. C. T. , more than nine in ten American Families will opt forp the standard deduction under this legislation, avoiding all together the difficult and complicated process of itemizing deductions. This means less time on Tax Compliance and preparation for millions of middleclass taxpayers. It may hurt the legal profession, but its going to give freedom to the American People. The bill also repeals one of the most regressive taxes in American History. The obamacare individual mandate tax which overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly burdens middle and lowincome families. In fact, 80 of the families that pay that tax make less than 50,000 per year. And yet this repeal has been the source of much consternation from my friends on the other side of the aisle. Very more to say on i have more to say on that in a moment. For most businesses that pay taxes on the owners individual reforms or passthroughs, the bill provides significant relief in the form of a simple tax reduction applied to qualified business income. This will reduce the overall tax burden for passthrough businesses which are the primary engines of our job creation in the United States. In addition, our bill helps out businesses by enhancing expensing and expanding the availability of simplified cash accounting. All told, this means more expansion, more investment, and more jobs for u. S. Workers employed by Small Businesses. Make no mistake, this bill is proSmall Business which is why the National Federation of independent businesses, the largest Small Business association in the country, has enthusiastically expressed its support for our legislation. Theyre not stupid. Theyre brilliant people. They know how badly the Small Business community has been treated by our tax writers over the years. And theyre looking forward to this legislation passing. It should probably go without saying at this point that the United States currently has the highest Corporate Tax rate in the industrialized world. And as a result, we are seeing businesses flee our country for more favorable tax conditions overseas while others are getting purchased by Foreign Companies. Some of them are just giving up and letting the Foreign Companies take them over. Thats not good for American Workers. Thats not good for america. Both former president s clinton and obama have spoken in favor of lowering the Corporate Tax rate to allow our country to be more globally competitive. Now, that sentiment has been shared by countless democrats in this chamber, including the current Ranking Member of the finance committee and the Senate Minority leader. With this bill we are taking their advice by lowering the Corporate Tax rate to 20 . We also shift to a more territorial system of International Tax. Another idea that was explicitly endorsed in a Bipartisan Working Group report so authored by my good friend senator schumer, by the way, who just spoke here. This shift is paid for largely through the use of a, quote, deemed repatriation, unquote. Another idea supported by democrats in recent years has been that idea. And we are creating both incentives and penalties to prevent base erosion, a goal that has become clearly bipartisan during the recent waves of corporate inversions. Long story short, madam president , theres quite a bit in this bill that both republicans and democrats sloo be able to democrats should be able to support. Of course, anyone who gets their information solely from the statements and talking points from our friends on the other side would never get that. Over the next few days, i expect well hear quite a few misleading claims, both about the bill and about the process that led us here. For example, i expect well hear that this bill is just a massive giveaway to the socalled rich. Thats always the claim of the democrats. Its a gift to the socalled rich. Oh, gosh, give me a break. I get so tired of that phony, lousy argument that they make all the time. Theyve hurt the middle class so badly in this country, its unbelievable. My colleagues will make that claim that its a massive giveaway to the socalled rich, even though they have the same data from the joint committee on taxation that we have, which shows pretty clearly that middleclass taxpayers will receive the largest proportional tax cuts under the bill and none of the existing tax burden will be shifted downward from those at the top. In fact, those in the highest bracket, according to j. C. T. , the joint committee on taxation, will pay a higher percentage of the overall tax burden than they do now. I expect well hear that by repealing the individual mandate tax, the bill will be taking Peoples Health insurance away and raising taxes on the poor. That claim will be made despite confirmation from congressional score keepers that nothing, nothing in the bill removes or limits anyones access to Health Insurance. But the approach theyre taking toward Health Insurance would put us into a socialized medicine situation overnight. If anybody thinks thats a great idea, i ask them to look at the socialized medicine countries and compare them to what weve been able to have. Instead, j. C. T. And c. B. O. Project that with no individual mandate, people will choose to not get Health Insurance, even if they still have access to premium subsidies, employerprovided plans, or even Free Health Coverage through medicaid. This bill provides choice. It doesnt take anything away from those individuals. We can quibble with that conclusion and question whether tens of millions of people who currently have Health Insurance, including a few million who are currently getting it for free, will suddenly opt to go uninsured once the mandate penalty is zeroed out. Given that most observers have concluded that the mandate has essentially failed to draw enough participants into the Health Care Market to keep premiums from skyrocketing, there is room for questioning whether the score keepers are right on that score. However, even if they are 100 correct, no one will lose their Health Insurance under this bill when the mandate is repealed. Anyone going uninsured will be doing so voluntarily. Were not kicking anyone off their insurance by zeroing out the individual mandate penalty, and its a blatant distortion of reality to claim otherwise. Similarly, no ones taxes will go up if the mandate is zeroed out. True enough, our score keepers have produced distribution tables showing an uptick in taxes at the low end of the income spectrum due to decreased utilization of premium tax credits offered under obamacare. My colleagues, im sure, will talk about this at length as well. However, id like to have one of them explain how a persons voluntary decision to forego a tax subsidy amounts to a tax hike. So far i havent heard a serious attempt at such explanation. In fact, during a recent markup when the chief of staff at j. C. T. Sat at the table and told my colleagues that no one will owe a dime in additional taxes as a result of the individual mandate repeal, none of my colleagues disputed this conclusion. Instead, they opted to ignore it, even after they were shown a j. C. T. Table showing that if the behavioral effects of the mandate repeal are removed from the equation as they should be when were talking about taxes owed, every income group will see their taxes go down under this bill. I hope our colleagues and those watching will remember these facts when theyre evaluating the claims being made by some on the other side. Madam president , we have a good bill here under the circumstances, and i believe members of both parties, if politics were removed from consideration, could support it. Weve gotten significant support throughout the Business Community with associations and companies from almost every industry and secto sector, publy and support of the reforms in this bill. I know some of my republican colleagues have concerns, and ive been committed to working with them to see if improvements can be made. And as this process moves forward, we may have to make a few more changes. This, of course, is how the legislative process works. Our process is designed to produce legislation that reflects the combined views that interests of a majority senators and more importantly the constituents they represent. As with any legislative endeavor of real significance, the perfect should not be considered the enemy of the good. As ive said before, ive been around long enough to know that anyone demanding perfection when it comes to major legislation is bound to be waiting a very, very long time. And likely wont accomplish much. Before i close, madam president , i want to underscore how much of the once in a Generation Opportunity this is. We need to get this done. The cost of failure and continuing with the status quo are just too high. The American People deserve a tax system that provides greater opportunity, a stronger economy, and better jobs. We need a tax code designed to work for the world of 2017 and beyond. Our bill will accomplish these goals. We need to take this next step so we can continue the work. So i urge all of my colleagues to vote yes on the motion to proceed. With that, madam president , i yield the floor. A senator madam president . The presiding officer the senator from rhode island reed reed thank you, madam president mr. Reed thank you, madam president. Two weeks i rise to urge my colleagues on the other side to reject the partisan and fiscally irresponsible tax proposals in the socalled tax cuts and jobs act. I asked them to remember that when it comes to our responsibility to plan for a nations longterm economic future. We are here to cooperate and also to secure opportunity and security for future generations, not to serve the shortterm interests of partisan politics. Today i regret to say that the process around the republican tax bill has only become more rushed, more partisan, more bitter, and less transparent. My republican colleagues wrote this bill behind closed doors, held no serious hearings or debate, and even now are planning to make substantial changes to the final bill that we will vote on before we have even had the benefit. A comprehension benefit of a comprehensive nonpartisan score of its cost. We all know better than to believe that this irresponsible process will lead to a responsible or sustainable outcome. Therefore, because it is clear that this bill is an unprecedented giveaway to the wealthy corporations and individuals at the expense of poor, sick, elderly, and middleclass americans and because it will drive out trillions of dollars, drive this nation trillions of dollars further into debt, i strongly urge my colleagues to reject this bill and work with both sides of the aisle to craft tax reform that will help rather than burden future generations and the middle class. The only future generations this bill appears to take into account are the children and grandchildren of the wealthiest families of the United States, including President Trumps family and the families of the wealthiest cabinet ever assembled by any president. According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, half of all the households and twothirds of households making between 5 54,700 and 93,200 would see their taxes go up under the current republican bill. That is half of all households and twothirds of households make between those numbers would see their taxes go up under the current republican bill. Individuals will struggle to get by because of sickness or the unavailability of wellpaying Job Opportunities would lose Tax Exemptions and advantages that would help them stay afloat. Many americans who played by the rules will open their paycheck to see a little more taken out every month but not for their benefit. On the other hand, for the 5,000 American Families, 5,000 American Families with fortunes in the millions of dollars or more, the republican plan to repeal or drastically curtail the estate tax could on its own funnel hundreds of billions of dollars to those few who need it the very least. The mere idea that we would raise taxes for tax cuts to the wealthiest epitomizes how this is at odds with our value and the trillions of dollars this bill will add to the deficit will lead to deep cuts in earned benefits like Social Security and medicare as well as our National Defense. Indeed, major cuts to defense historically follow tax cuts and this is almost precisely why we have an estate tax in the first place. Our nation first enacted estate taxes to pay for military conflicts without driving the nation deeply into debt. Starting in 1797 and continuing through the civil war, spanishamerican war, and world war i, estate taxes were used to offset the cost of war. It was kept to counter the massive growth of inequality, something that were seeing today on a more intense scale. The estate tax was a critical source of revenue that softened the blow of the great depression. Prior congresses saw it as their responsibility to pay americas bills at home and abroad. They did not leave years of war on americas line of credit nor did they expect the poor to pay while the rich took a tax cut. There were times when a deficit was necessary, but no generation has faced what we do now. 16 years of deficit finance military conflict with no end in sight, compounded by the bush tax cuts for the wealthy that never paid for themselves despite represented republican promises. Before we give the wealthiest americans another tax cut at the expense of our children and our childrens children, we need an idea of how we will handle trillions of dollars in compounding war debt, not to mention the trillions more we must spend to maintain and modernize our military and address the basic needs that have gone unfund. That is why i will file a motion on the bill to reinstate the estate tax at current levels and place all of the revenue generated by it into a trus