February 14, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 29 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages S1349-S1350]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Tax Reform

  Mr. President, tax reform is working. When Republicans took office 2 
years ago, we had one goal in mind, and that was to make life better 
for the American people. Key to that goal was getting our economy going 
again after years of economic stagnation under the Obama 
administration. We took action to lift burdensome regulations, and in 
December of 2017, we passed the historic, comprehensive reform of our 
Nation's Tax Code.
  Why the Tax Code?
  Well, the Tax Code plays a huge role in the health of our economy. It 
helps to determine how much money individuals and families have to 
spend and to save. It helps to determine whether a small business can 
expand and hire. It helps to determine whether larger businesses hire, 
invest, and stay in the United States. A small business owner who faces 
a huge tax bill is highly unlikely to be able to expand her business or 
to hire a new employee. A larger business is going to find it hard to 
create jobs or to improve benefits for employees if it is struggling to 
stay competitive against foreign businesses that pay much less in 
taxes. A larger business is also unlikely to keep jobs and investment 
in the United States if the Tax Code makes it vastly more expensive to 
hire American workers.
  Before we passed tax reform a year ago in December, our Tax Code was 
not helping our economy. It was taking way too much money from American 
families, and it was making it harder for businesses, large and small, 
to create jobs, increase wages, and grow. That is why, after months of 
work, we passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
  This legislation cut tax rates for American families, doubled the 
child tax credit, and nearly doubled the standard deduction. It lowered 
tax rates across the board for owners of small- and medium-sized 
businesses, farms, and ranches. It lowered our Nation's massive 
corporate tax rate, which, up until January 1 of last year, was the 
highest corporate tax rate in the developed world. It expanded business 
owners' ability to recover the costs of the investments they make in 
their businesses, which frees up cash that they can reinvest in their 
operations and in their workers. It also brought the U.S. international 
tax system into the 21st century so that American businesses would not 
be operating at a competitive disadvantage next to their foreign 
counterparts.
  I am proud to report that the Republicans' economic policies are 
working. Our economy is thriving. The economy grew at a robust 3.4 
percent in the third quarter of 2018. January marked the 11th straight 
month that unemployment has been at or below 4 percent. That is the 
longest streak in nearly five decades. The number of job openings hit a 
record high in December. Once again, there were more job openings than 
job seekers. In fact, job openings outnumbered job seekers by more than 
a million jobs. Think about that. There are more job openings than 
there are people who are looking for work. It is not just by a little 
but by a lot--by a million job openings.
  The Department of Labor reports that the number of job openings has 
outnumbered the number of job seekers now for 10 straight months. Wage 
growth has accelerated. Wages have now been growing at a rate of 3 
percent or greater for 6 straight months. The last time wage growth 
reached this level was in 2009--a decade ago.
  A Bloomberg article from yesterday reported:

       A strong labor market is proving to be [a] blessing for job 
     switchers as they pocket bigger raises amid record openings. 
     Median wage growth for those who jumped to new positions 
     picked up to 4.6 percent in January from a year earlier--the 
     fastest pace since October of 2007.

  Median household income is at an all-time, inflation-adjusted high of 
$61,372, and the list goes on.
  These are a lot of statistics, but behind those numbers are American 
families whose lives are improving, thanks to Republican economic 
policies--American families who no longer have to choose between a car 
repair and a dentist's bill; American families who now have a little 
extra every month to put away for the kids' college or for their 
retirement. Thanks to Republican economic policies, Americans are 
feeling more optimistic and more hopeful about their futures.
  Gallup reports: ``Americans' optimism about their personal finances 
has climbed to levels not seen in more than 16 years, with 69 percent 
now saying they expect to be financially better off `at this time next 
year.' ''
  There are 57 percent of Americans who ``rate the economy as excellent 
or good,'' according to Gallup, which is the highest level since 
January of 2001.
  There are 69 percent of Americans who say that now is a good time to 
find a quality job, which is the highest percentage that Gallup has 
ever recorded.
  There is optimism in this country. There is optimism within families, 
and there is optimism within small businesses. There is optimism at 
every level when it comes to this economy and the jobs and the wages 
that are being created as a result of these economic policies.
  When it came time to draft tax reform, we had hoped it could have 
been a bipartisan endeavor. After all, many of the ideas that we 
included were the product of both Republican and Democratic proposals. 
As someone who has been around tax policy for a number of years and had 
served as a member of the Senate Finance Committee when tax reform was 
written, I have seen many of the bills that have been introduced.
  A few years ago, I led a task force that took ideas from both sides 
and incorporated them into a document that

[[Page S1350]]

we put out there that provided for many of the ideas that were included 
in tax reform, and some of those were Democratic ideas. What happened, 
unfortunately, was that the Democrats were not over the 2016 election, 
and they absolutely refused to collaborate on tax reform legislation. 
Now they are trying to pretend that the economic progress we have made 
over the past 2 years doesn't exist.
  In a recent tweet, one Democrat Presidential hopeful here in the 
Senate went so far as to actively mislead Americans about tax reform by 
falsely suggesting that tax reform raised taxes for the middle class 
when, instead, it lowered taxes for an estimated 90 percent of middle-
class Americans. The Washington Post called her tweet ``nonsensical and 
misleading.'' Presumably, most Americans are well aware that the size 
of their tax refunds has nothing to do with the size of their tax 
bills.
  That statement--made by a Democratic candidate for President--peddles 
a blatantly false narrative in the hopes of scoring political points, 
and for that statement, she was awarded four Pinocchios by the 
Washington Post, which is about as big a whopper as you can get. 
Luckily, no matter how much the Democrats try to pretend that our 
economy isn't improving, they can't hide the reality that Republican 
economic policies are making life better for American families.
  I am proud of everything we have accomplished so far, and we are 
going to keep working to ensure that our economy can thrive for the 
long term and to make sure that every American will have access to a 
secure and prosperous future.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.