Congressional Record United States Th of America PROCEEDINGS and DEBATES of the 115 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION
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E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 115 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION Vol. 163 WASHINGTON, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2017 No. 196 Senate The Senate met at 10 a.m. and was TAX CUTS AND JOBS ACT about how a shutdown would affect called to order by the President pro The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under him politically. It is disappointing but tempore (Mr. HATCH). the previous order, the Senate will re- maybe not surprising that President Trump appears to be putting politics f sume consideration of H.R. 1, which the clerk will report. before the well-being of the American PRAYER The senior assistant legislative clerk people. As President, the welfare of the American people should always come The Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, of- read as follows: first—always. fered the following prayer: A bill (H.R. 1) to provide for reconciliation We have a lot of things to accomplish Let us pray. pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent by the end of the year, and a govern- Eternal God, You have truly been resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018. ment spending deal is particularly im- good to us. Even when we stumble and Pending: portant for our men and women in uni- fall, Your mercy continues to sustain McConnell (for Hatch/Murkowski) amend- form, as well as a host of programs us. ment No. 1618, of a perfecting nature. Baldwin motion to commit the bill to the that create jobs and boost the econ- Lead our lawmakers to realize that Committee on Finance, with instructions. omy. the abilities You have given them are Wyden (for Nelson) motion to commit the The President talks about defending maximized only when they are used for bill to the Committee on Finance, with in- the troops and then threatens a shut- Your purposes. Show them the best structions. down. It is a contradiction—a con- way to use their talents and opportuni- The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- tradiction—and I am sure our generals ties to honor and serve You and hu- ator from Colorado. would tell him that even playing manity. ORDER FOR RECESS SUBJECT TO THE CALL OF around with the possibility of seques- May our Senators this day speak THE CHAIR ter and shutting down the government words that are constructive and help- Mr. GARDNER. Madam President, I is no good for our armed services, as ful, bringing encouragement as well as ask unanimous consent that following well as for the rest of the country. vision to their labors. Give them the the remarks of the Senator from Wis- We should all be focused on avoiding wisdom to know Your will and the consin, the Senate stand in recess sub- a government shutdown. Certainly courage to do it. Let Your presence be ject to the call of the chair. Democrats will be working with our felt in this Chamber and everywhere on The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without Republican colleagues in Congress to Earth. objection, it is so ordered. that end. I think our Republican col- We pray in Your Holy Name. Amen. RECOGNITION OF THE MINORITY LEADER leagues agree. I hope they won’t suc- f The Democratic leader is recognized. cumb to President Trump’s whim based GOVERNMENT FUNDING on a political decision and not on what PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, is good for America. President Trump The President pro tempore led the before I address the issue of taxes, let must change his tune—and soon—if he Pledge of Allegiance, as follows: me address the matter of the govern- wants to be a constructive partner in I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the ment funding bill. those discussions rather than the focal United States of America, and to the Repub- We are now only a week away from a point of blame. lic for which it stands, one nation under God, government shutdown, which, to re- Madam President, on taxes, my Re- indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. mind my colleagues, could cost our publican friends have stretched into economy thousands of jobs and billions day 2 of their debate on the bill, which f of dollars, as it did in 2013. I think a still lacks resolution on some critical RESERVATION OF LEADER TIME government shutdown is something we issues. After promising over the past few The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. all desperately want to avoid, Demo- crats and Republicans—I talked to months that their tax bill would pay CAPITO). Under the previous order, the for itself through economic growth, the leadership time is reserved. some of my colleagues this morning— with the exception, it seems, of the Joint Committee on Taxation came out f President. with a report yesterday that showed This morning’s Washington Post re- that these promises were unfounded, CONCLUSION OF MORNING ports that President Trump has told way off the mark. Even considering BUSINESS his confidantes that a government economic growth, the Republican tax The PRESIDING OFFICER. Morning shutdown could be good for him politi- bill will add roughly $1 trillion to the business is closed. cally and that he has asked friends deficit. And many economists have said ∑ This ‘‘bullet’’ symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. S7653 . VerDate Sep 11 2014 09:24 Dec 02, 2017 Jkt 079060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A01DE6.000 S01DEPT1 S7654 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE December 1, 2017 that this dynamic scoring doesn’t work magnitude? What might have been powerful. It makes healthcare less af- at all. Here, the JCT gave credence to snuck in? What might have been fordable and less accessible. It will de- the theory of dynamic scoring but then changed by mistake—an innocent mis- prive the government of the resources came out with a number that was not take? There are so many reasons to not needed to support the military, sci- the kind of wild exaggerations we are rush this bill through, but we know entific research, education, and infra- hearing from the Secretary of the why it is being done. We know why Re- structure. Treasury, from the President, and from publican Members will only have a few The hole it blows in the deficit will— some of our Republican colleagues, hours at most to read the draft legisla- make no mistake—endanger Social Se- particularly those of the Club for tion before voting on it. curity, Medicare, and Medicaid. Repub- Growth bent. Notching a political win, I would say licans, including President Trump, Earlier in this debate, Republicans to my colleagues, isn’t a good enough have openly admitted that they will claimed that this would be a tax cut reason to throw common sense and leg- seek changes in this program after the for everybody and that nobody in the islative responsibility out the window. tax bill. Senator SANDERS has outlined middle class is going to get a tax in- Notching a political win isn’t a good eloquently how dangerous this bill is to crease. Independent analyses show that enough reason to raise taxes and pre- the future of Social Security and Medi- these claims were not valid, and to miums on millions of middle-classes care. I know our Republican colleagues their credit, some Republicans cor- families when there is a much better who came down to argue against him rected the record. bill to be had by working in a bipar- were all on the defensive. Now Republicans have gotten the tisan way, Democrats and Republicans, All the things our President and Re- ‘‘dynamic scoring’’ they have de- across the aisle, together. My Repub- publicans say they wanted to do are manded for years. They are in charge. lican friends must know that ‘‘we need- not happening. And this bill moves in They put dynamic scoring in place. It ed to notch a political win’’ isn’t a the opposite direction—not only on is still not good enough. As recently as good enough excuse for a constituent helping the wealthy and not helping this week, the Republican leader and who asks why you voted to raise their the middle class in the way it needs to others claimed that this bill would not taxes but slash them for big corpora- but also in endangering Social Security add to the deficit. We know now that tions. and Medicare. Most insidious of all, the even under the dynamic scoring meth- Today may be the first day of the bill hides a ticking time bomb of mid- od the Republican Party asked for and new Republican Party—one that raises dle-class tax hikes at the center of our received, this bill would add $1 trillion taxes on the middle class. The one Tax Code. Who would want to vote for to the deficit. All of the claims that thing Republicans always promised the that? tax cuts for the wealthy and corpora- middle class is, we are not going to Many of my Republican friends feel tions will pay for themselves were not raise your taxes. A good number of my that the hard right—big, wealthy cor- correct. It is time for my Republican colleagues from the other side of the porate interests—will put these ads on friends to admit the error and come aisle—the junior Senator from Texas— TV saying that this bill helps the mid- clean with the American people.