Senators come to the floor to talk about the budget resolution and tax reform. We would hear from senators merkley and murray and later senator jack reed of maryland. Our nation was founded on a principle encapsulated in the first most important words of the constitution we the people. Our founders wanted us to have a nation that didnt work for the powerful and privileged but for the people by the people and for the people as president lincoln so eloquently described the nation mocks by hand for the privileged i am for the people. Tomorrow a bill this coming to the floor that couldnt be more of a powerful bill than weve seen on the floor of the senate beforere. The fundamental values in the constitution, this bill is a budget bill and it at its heart it says we are going to do 5 trillion of tax cuts almost completely for the richest americans by cutting programs that make america work for working americans. It says im not going to do anything for the rich and powerful but why, i ask you is if coming for the rich and powerful . President trump came and explained how youo can make a promise that you are going to do tax reform for theou middle clas that is about the National Treasury for the rich and powerful how do you explain this opposite was a complete pretense we have that says this is about helping american workers. Five plus trillion dollars in the giveaway is a national and powerfulut. The cuts of 1 trillion of medicaid for working americans. When their loved one gets sick. Its peace of mind to much to ask from the healthcare system. Its by destroying healthcare and diminishing health care for seniors. And not just our seniors, but our citizens on medicaid and oregon as the Oregon Health plan it deserves the poorest among us many of them working parttime jobs that have no health care plan, many of them working to determine the last second some of the most stressful jobs in america at the very bottom, some of the most stressful Work Schedules at the very bottom and cut trillion dollars for medicaid and have petroleum for medicare. Thenra lets look at the other programs that would be devastated by this republican budget in order to fund the 5 trillion of tax cuts almost for the wealthiest americans. The democratic staff said they are extended evenly if would have more than a million families and more than 700,000 on fixed incomes. It would eliminate nutrition assistance to more than 100 million a 33 cut in other words, translate that more than the already hungry america. It would tell Grant Funding by more than 100 million. Its a 37 million all to get a max tax giveaway to the richest americans. P the president is proceeding to say this is a plan for the middle class. The benefits go to the top 1 . Why should there be oney single penny going toer the richest nation in which we should be striving for a foundation for every family to drive. Instead we see all those programs including the opportunityll being rated one of the massive giveaways in the t top . Come before the American People and explain how it is possible that you can claim that they are doing a plan for the middle class americans and youre sending virtually the entire benefits to the top 1 of americans. This budget resolution, the associated tax plan commits one of the most egregious examples of the powerful and privileged rather than the government of, by and for the people. To stand up and say not 1 penny to the top 1 . With enough 1 penny for the top come if you want to plan to strengthen the middle class it would be not 1 penny to the top 1 , not 1 penny per billionaire while weve got medicare and medicaid. Not 1 penny for billionaires when middleclass families taxes would go up under this plan, not 1 penny when we destroy programs and safety nets andon opportunities for education from head start to programs to attend college. We could do a great deal of good to invest in america. We could invest in transportation. We have a credible number of road that need repairs. A credible number of people to work middleclass jobs in middleclass incomes through buildingld infrastructure insted of a giveaway o the giveaway ofy top 1 by investing more than a trillion we can create millions of good paying jobs. More than 56,000 bridges in america one out of 11 and structurally deficient engineers estimate we could easily spend 123 billion on repairing bridges and 420 million for modernizing the highways and get a return lower vehicle maintenance, decreased the delays, lower fuel consumption, improved safety, lower longterm maintenance costs, lower emissions than the benefits of investing in transportation in addition to the fact that it strengthens our economy. We can think about the investment we need to have in our water infrastructure. The water supply systems and every town across america. What about all those lead pipes that need to be00 replaced . 2,000 years ago they were poisoned by their own water because they lined the aqueducts with lead, and here we are 20 centuries later poisoning our citizens with lead pipes. Why arent we spending money to take care of that problem coming and its not just a problem in flint, it a is a problem with hundreds of cities across the country and if we want america to thrive, why not invest in rural broadband, why not create highspeed broadband in every town and village across this nation that strengthens the economy to give people the ability to build their businesses and small town Rural America instead of spending trillions of dollars in tax giveaways to the richest americans . How about an investment in the students . Not to decreasing telegrams to strengthening told grants to make it possible for people to attend College Without ending up in the event the size of the home mortgage. There would be good jobs, good education, good infrastructure. Not the theft of the american treasury of the forc four to 5n for the richest americans. That is what is being proposed. Has there ever been a train robbery as audaciousus as this fact of the National Treasury for the richest americans to do. Here on the floor we should be wrestling on how to create a foundation for every family in america to thrive not considering t the bill that wips out healthcare and telegrams, does damage to every conceivable thing to make the nation stronger in order to give the billionaires more zeros in their vacant bank accounts. It is more shameful and the principle of the constitution oa government of, by and for the peoplele the senator from florida since the country has undertaken a massive reform in the tax co code, to go back and think what life was like in 1986 just a different planet and a different world. This is an important debate so people can understand that are watching at home, the budget is not you and i am thinking of it as a plan on what you were going to spend money on end with the federal budget is as an outlining of the framework then you have to go and spend it through a separate process. Its going to be used as a vehicle to pass reform the Justice System to generate revenue for the government to pay for the things that we need to pay that is the first debate but the budget has already led to tax reform because that is the purpose is being used for this year. Matter . That theres a lot of speeches going on about how this is a giveaway for this group of people or that group of people. Its hard to do since there still is not a billionth reason why there still is not a bill is because it is going to be worked througworkthrough the normal prf the senate. You couldnt get throughpu the committee and thats what they are going to do and tax reform and it will bebe a framework tht basically says these are some of the ideas that we have com comet us as our starting point that we need to operate from. Theresei going to be an opportunity to weigh in and make differences and from that, we intend to produce a tax bill. So, you can criticize the framework i suppose, but to go c out and try to convince people theres a tax bill that will do this when h its just not true d when you have a seat in the senate and potentially on the committee and you can weigh in about the specifics of whats going to be on the bill and what is not, i think that is unfair and disingenuous but in any event, that is kind of the way things go nowadays, so i look forward to that debate. The second thing thats been an Interesting Development is to talk about how horrible this is going to be a. To borrow and use it to bundle th fund all the the government is going to do. Over a dozen members of the senate is signed on to it as a plan but theres no plan to pay for it like tens of trillions of dollars over the next number of years and a lot of concern there. The. We cant tax our way out of it and can simply grow our way out of it, weve got to do a combination of things. I look at the number of people going into it and how long they are going i to live and they are going ttheyregoing to have bign the years to come just to take them down the threatened to buto trigger the debt crisis. If we take a stagnant economy no cuts in the world are going to get you there you cant just tax yourwa way. The only solution to the death problem happens to be good for america overcome is the combination of discipline on future spending combined with rapid robust and sustained economic growth. We reduce taxes and regulations and frankly make investments in infrastructure and the like and today they are no longer recipients of the aid and the nations looking to work with the United States to get a little bit closer to the way we are. They are fullblown competitors. Sometimes our team is made up of americans but part of the japanese teams to create a company where the mexican team to create a manufacturing chain so that complicateser it furthe. A l competition doesnt have toe one where they win or they lose and they lose and a we went to a beer not c performing well enouh competition and its not just the taxes. We have infrastructure problems that we have to confront. We are not teaching people in sufficient numbers the skills they need the best jobs in the world. And people that can be welders, these are important jobs as we well. We need to have an immigration system, that is pro american, the pro American Economy that allows us to compete in the world. We also have to have a tax cut of competitors is cannot be more expensive to start a business to operate then it is somewhere else. Its hurting the American People. We talk about putting america first, i think that its about allowing america to compete. Im not asking for an unfair advantage, im just asking for a fair chance to compete. The goal here if you want to make america an attractive place to invest we dont want people taking that money and invested in a lot of countries we want to investm it here. They dont pay taxes the way to bigll businesses do. These are things wee need to dl with so we can become competitive so we could have more taxpayers, not more taxes, more taxpayers. Not just improve the quality of life, but it generates more revenue to pay for the bridges thest roads into the National Security of the United States of america. We are going to compete and win in the global economy. 1996, my parents, my mom was at kmart and my dad was a bartender and we didnt have everything we wanted that everything we need needed. And do those sorts of things. My parents could achieve a standard of living that they had 1986. These dont exist anymore and havent kept pace with the cost of living. Now up until today my wife jeanette and i have been raising four children in the century and we certainly have been blessed to have Resources Available to us than the vast majority of people who will be impacted by the whereabouts of what to do here and we have. In our lives that we understand some of the challenges facing people today. Heres the bottom line. Raising children in the 21st century is more expensive than any other point in this country. And the reason is theres more things to pay for. I know people may tell you about wifi andy. Access to the internt is a luxury, im sorry you cant if you dont have access to the internet i. Those data plans cost money and if you are paying for a data plan its not just about watching movies on netflix, you cannot do homework in many schools in the country unless you have access to it and that is why i personally witnessed people at mcdonalds at 6 30 in the evening because they have a free wifi. The cost of everything keeps going up with clothing, food, everything. You look at our tax code, and it hasnt kept pace so that he they give you an example, from 1960 which is when the latest numbers were available, is when the average cost per child of raising that child in the middle income family. Here is a stunning figure. This is different but by and large for middle income families and by that we mean a firefighter and a teacher raising a child they are going to spend approximately 230,000 to raise that from zero to 18 and by the way my oldest is now 17 and a half which begins to accelerate but nevertheless 230,000 let me tell you Something Else that doesnt even include college. That i doesnt include going to college its another thing we ie going through right now which is without control in terms of what they are charging. For the life of me i dont understand how the schools cant expect someone that comes from a singleparent home in a poor neighborhood to keep pace with people who were havin having the sorts of Resources Available to them but that is another topic forut another day but that is another cost involved in all of this. These things are reducing the ability to have children and raise them and the costs keep going up to one of the things we offered isntve going to solve every problem is to increase the Child Tax Credit. It would reduce families and tax bills on a current basis and increasing the flexibility that family has had the time when for example Childcare Costs are risen more than ever before and theyve everer been. The other advantage is not families the most important unit in all of society is the most Important Institution in society and the first government in the first school, it is the Core Institution that underlines Everything Else we do as a nation. Theres no more important on any of uformany of us will ever do s being a parent and if you think about the tax code that says if you invest money in money in af equivalent for this method will help youou with that if you invt in someone whosne going to need to build up a sort o the sort od future we want for the nation a tax code doesnt take that into account, that makes no sense to me. So it is to outline how important the tax credit is to the tax reform and again, on the framework because there is no bill out on the framework the amount of tax relief that a working or middle class family will get almost entirely dependscome almost entirely will depende on what people do with the Child Tax Credit this shows the tax cut for American Families if the Child Tax Credit is doubled in its current size and we make it refundable against the payroll Tax Liability which is the tax every american pays. We apply it towards the liability and this chart senator leahy and i have been working on it ouonin advocating and wevenn working with at the i office on and this shows you what the impact of that would be. That charge depends with a cut on the more money you make the larger the limit because o you cantin if you are not making ay money at all even if it applies to payroll tax. It is per child so it isnt, thats the blue charge. Wherchart. Where is the red chart . We do nothing, then you start to see without tax credits being made and without applying towards the payroll refundable ifre sufficiently increased, the framework would be a tax increase and pay more into the more you have the bigger your tax increase wil will become ofs suffice it to say i dont think that is the intent of the people that drew up the framework that is where we will end up if we dont do it, so thats how important it is. It has to happen. It wont passrk without it. This is a pro job profamily initiative and i think it is pro growth. Its hard for economists to measure but theres a lot of people that cannot start a business because they cant afford to leave the security of a certain employment and they bring that up to be able to do so iso would make it to the secd chart if i can get it out of here quick. Howan can we this shows you e same dynamic. Firefighters come obviously those in my own family, and again the 1500 Child Tax Credits with the refundable you start to seeis that red wine again and hw prophetic it is. Butdo look at the blue line that is at least 2,000 applied to the payroll taxhe and now you start to see the figures give better an in the Home Health Aid getting about a thousand dollars in l relief, the retail salesperson a little bit under a thousand dollars,r the truck driver and office clerk getting down to 14. The nurse getting down to about 1200, the firefighter getting down to 1200. 1200. A lot of people tell you 1400 isnt going to change the world. It will help. I didnt say that its a solution to every problem. The other solution is to get the salaries of higher. The other is to get the costs lower like to get a grip on the cost of going to get college credit. The other solution is to provide moreer opportunity for child cae options for people but there is no way this does not help. It helps, and it helps us to get closer to the goal we have in the nation and a place of equal opportunity because we pride ourselves on equal opportunity, but im telling you that we are lacking equal opportunity of children growing up into differenin twodifferent homes, s to quality pre k. Education and Quality School and the other rights support for the schooling and one does not. It starts by the time you were a junior or senior it absolutely hurts you in f your way forwardn life. This isnt the solution to all of our problems. That would be misleading but it is a step in the production and it would show him the tax policy that we are supporting the most Important Institution in society, thehe most input functn any of us will ever do, which is to be a parent and we are investing in americas future. The children being raised. Those are the people that are going to Fund Social Security and medicare when i retire and many of you. They will be starting businesses and they will be the backbone of thet economy not in 50 years but in the next ten, 15, 20 years. This is the future of america with a o literally and figuratively. Theak parents will make that investment on their behalf and who are the right people to be making it for this is part of whatever happens. This has strong bipartisan support and i know the white house supports it. I am optimistic it will happen. The only way to keep it from happening, but this has to happen. There is no choice but to do it and it is the right thing to do. And i am pleased weve come to this and i look forward to the work to get it achieved. But it cant just be we increased the accredited by a little bit. If we do not do it right and structure it in an appropriate will be raising taxes on the family and that cant happen. I know no one wants to see that happen so we will have a lot of debates about Everything Else this is the one i hope well wie a strong bipartisan support as we move forward on tax reform and and excited to be able to work on it. I have five requests for committees to meet with the senate. To have the approval of the majority and the minority leader. I yield the floor. The senator from washington. I want to start by making it very t clear that this is not te way the budget process should work. In fact to even call this aa budget process gives it more credit than it deserves to be had with republicans in control of the white house and both chambers of commerce, the budget process has descended into chaos. I talked about this in the budget committee. But im going to keep talking about it because it is important. First of all, look at the date. Wdates. We are deviating a budger fiscal year 2018, months too late, and more than two weeks into the fiscal year we are supposed to be budgeting for. That Second Coming of far more important, we are not here to talk aboute a budget, we are not really here to have a debate about the values and priorities and where we should be directing our limited natural resources. We are not here to talk about who or what we should be a investing in. We are certainly not trying to come together around a shared vision for where our country can pick next year or five years from now or even ten years from now. Democrats do want to have this conversation and we believe this is a critical debate have come and we would love to spend time on the floor are debating a budget that opens up that conversation and put us on the path of working together to get that done. But we all know why we are here because the Republican Leaders want t to start another fasttrk partisan process to jam legislation to congress and to do Everything Possible not to have to work with democrats. And for what, to get mor give mx breaks to the rich, raise taxes on the middle class and circumvent any debate about a major environmental decisions that would be unwise and potentially catastrophic, to blast a hole in the budget that would increase the deficit, slow dance and put social security, medicare, medicaid, education and investment, health care and soor much more priorities at ri. Im confident we can get it done because mr. President all we are asking is that President Trump keep the promises he made on the campaign trail to put workers and the middle class 1. It shouldnt be that difficult and the choice could not be clearer. Should we give President Trump and his cabinet of millionaires and billionaires more tax breaks or should we cut taxes for the mom or dad working two jobs and struggling to pay theirob s more or help their kids go to college . Should we preserve and protect medicare and medicaid or should we allow those critical programs to seek cuts to give tax breaks to the rich . Thatsoc really the crux of thi. Mr. President democrats believe that workers in the middle class should get tax breaks and from everything we are seeing about this republican plan and everything we are seeing in this budget today republicans dont agree. So im hoping we can move away from this partisan process and really get to work for the people we represent. Im hoping we can return to budget process that allowss a true debate about our values and our priorities as a nation. We should be here talking about the path to another bipartisan budget deal that will restore the investments in domestic and defenses. Priorities. We should be having conversations about ways to strengthen medicare and medicaid in our country. We should be talking a lot about how we tackle o or deficit and debt challenges fairly and responsibly and mr. President i want to know i find it especially interesting that so many republicans spend years pretending to care about the deficit when it came to making cuts to middle class priorities. The minute it came to handing tax breaks to the rich all of that one out the window and one republican even if knitted to the news york times that deficit concerns were nothing more and that quote a great talking point when democrats are in charge. And with a budget adding trillions of dollars to the debt on the floor today we will see where people actually stand on the issue. Pfinally mr. President we shoud be talking about ways to help our workers. We should be talking about ways to grow our economy from the middle out like making sure we have access to highquality childcare and prek for every working family making college more affordable, investing in our Retirement Security for our workers and their families. We should be talking about how we are going to support of veterans and protect Womens Health rights of making health care more affordable and accessible. Theres a lot we should be talking about this budget. Those are the conversations we should be having. Those are the people we should be investing in so im going to be doing everything i can in the socalled budgeteb debate to kep the focus on the people i came here to fight for an i understand democrats and families across the countryca fight back against republican attempts to jam a massive partisan tax breaks for the rich through congress and working families and middleclass. Thank you mr. President and i yield the floor. The senator from rhode island. Thank you very much mr. President and i rise in strong opposition to the budget resolution for fiscal year 2018. Let me say consideration of this budget resolution seems surreal not only because of the timing coming three weeks into the year but also because the real challenges the United States faces today. We have important work to do. At this moment three states and two u. S. Territories are struggling to cover significant natural disasters. Resources we are providing simply are not sufficient. In addition sadly and tragically las vegas experience the mass shooting in american history, breaking a record and a an ominous and sinister record set last year in the magic massive mass shooting in orlando. After President Trumps sabotaging of the Affordable Care asked Congress Needs to act to stabilize private insurance exchanges and i think we were all please at least i was to see senator out xander and senator murphy take strong steps of the last few days to do that. It appears however that they are being once again undermined by the president. Next week the president is officially going to clear what we all have recognized as the Opioid Crisis as a National Emergency but declarations mean nothing without the resources tr help and this is an emergency. We need to provide those resources now by giving this resolution force those resources will be available. Stay started taking r steps to reduce Health Care Coverage to kids under the Health Insurance program and services through Community Health tickets we have not been able to act in time to reauthorize these critical. We Face International crises in iran and iraq and north correa which are inflamed every time they present seems to tweet or to claim these issues. The four december the president and Congress Need to come to an agreement to provide relief from sequester level funding caps. The president and u congress ned to act immediately to undo the crisis created by the president s executive order on talk that which will put ousands at risk of deportation and have impacts on our economy. This budget addresses none of these challenges. In fact its so waits taxes to the rich and deficits that we will not have the resources to deal with any one of these issues. Instead the president took steps that would cause l millions to lose their private Health Insurance lasthi week to this budget will pave the way for trillions of dollars in cuts to help care offered under medicare and medicaid. Last week the president basically tried to strangle the Affordable Care act. Now the goal is to undo medicare and medicaid and thats astounding. The real goal behind it is not just undoing these critical programs for americans. The real goal is to provide trillions more in tax cuts which overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest. The majority will say the budget only lays out a fiscal plan and none of the details have been set so we have seen this in play before. Tax cuts for all and with nothing short of an end historic transfer wealth from low too middle income americans to those who are prospering the most in this country. It starts with the promise of a balanced budget but it will end with it will start this time when after aco long and difficut recovery from the economic crash from the Bush Administration if our economy is finally moving forward with stock market highs low unemployment, nothing about our current Economic Situation demands massive deficit busting tax cuts typically for the wealthiest americans. Indeed its instructive to look back to the 2001 and 2003 bush tax cuts. These tax plans were also paid for and chileans of dollars of d because the nation was newly out war. These plants also overwhelmingly favored the top 1 of americans. We were told then that the tax benefits were to trickle down to the working class and pay for themselvesi. I opposed these tax plans because i didnt believe it would occur in effect it didnt occur. To fight despite benefits of those at the top Overall Economic growth from 2001 to 2007 was weaker than average. Medium house come and come fell 2. 7 while prices continue to rise. Weak regulation and oversight took us into the great recession. The g. O. P. Is poised to do the same thing yet again. Just for contrast in the early 1990s under president clinton democrats took tough votes to raise revenue and ring in springing spending. The economy took off on one of the biggest economic booms in history and at the same time returned budget deficits into surpluses. There are lessons in that experience. There are no shortcuts to restoring fiscal order. Tax cuts not pay for themselves but he cant balance the budget while cutting revenue so how does the majority reach its goal this time click by peering 5. 8 trillion in debts from basic Public Services including medicare and medicaid with massive deficits and rosy revenue assumptions. With these in place the g. O. P. Says it can balance the budget and cut taxes by 1. 5 trillion. Never find the fact that the republicans cuts will cost more than 1. 5 trillion nevermind thismi budget assumes cuts in nondefense programs and we have spending for defense of sequester levels which we all recognize are now did it. Even if the numbers are phony most americans will be gettingta substantial tax break from this plan click sadly, no. According to the Tax Policy Center analysis about 80 will go to the top 1 increasing their aftertax income by 9 . Nearly half of that money will go to the top one tenth of 1 . Meanwhile the bottom of american wage earners will get 13 of attacks that in many hard working people with children could actually see their taxeshe go. Based on the Tax Policy Center analysis most Rhode Islanders who would get tax cuts received only 190 or less out of this deal and thats less than the cost of a weeks worth of groceries for a family of four yet most Rhode Islanders and most americans stand to lose muchos more to the inevitable cs and investment like Medicaid Programs title i and public instant infrastructure. Most middleclass families in my state depend on programs like these to send their children to school they need telld grants. To make sure that there held early mother or father is well cared for theyd need medicaid fr nursing home facilities. That 190dollar tax cut will be nothing compared to the losses they will incur in the course of college and that cost of health care for their parents who are struggling to get by. On the other hand people in the top income bracket who get to buy a new mercedes if the recent past is any indication they will pocket that money invested for send it overseas. That money doesnt trickle downa and working americans on the losing end of this text deal will lose theiram paychecks. Leadership are desperate for a legislative win. They have spent the entire year trying to ram through a partisan Trumpcare Bill that would have banned our entire Health Care System kick over 30 million americans who lost their insurance and make massive cuts to medicaid arming our most vulnerable citizens including seniors children and people with disabilities. The product alienated even members of their own party and americans across the political spectrum. After having failed with trumpcare and all the other challenges we face majority leadership has set a deadline of november 13 or committees to produce taxcut legislation. All the other business we need to do mustt wait until we cut taxes for the wealthy. I know there is room to compromise and there are members of goodwill on both sides who are actively working to address many of the real challenges i earlier mentioned that tax cuts to the rich shouldnt be on our todo list let alone at the top of the list as it is today. F one of the things who should be standing up for her is our men and women in uniform by providing the revenue we need to support them but when it comes to providing that this resolution takes revenue away from millionaires and billionaires. This is a truly rigged process for its only purpose is a fasttrack tax cut for the rich and cuts funds to the health care and key initiatives that most americans, on. I oppose his budget resolution and i urge my colleagues to do the same and with that madam president i yield my time. Meem Lyndon Johnson is a common murder and should be arrested for murder. I ask, think the Peace Movement should have the anger of these women whose child was burned by napalm dropped by planes with in the sky. The Peace Movement has gone to the streets and its got to use the tactic of destruction because the American People are drunk with apathy. I felt that i should accept their offers to be behind the scenes every time they offered it because anytime you see the president of the United States behind the scenes you learn something about the president and you see something. It is important that i can be there for you. Everything i see is important. Senator john mccain was honored with the National Constitution centers 2017 Liberty Medal in philadelphia this week to former Vice President joe biden deliver keynote remarks and presented senator mccain with the award. His remarks senator mccain focused on the need for u. S. Leadership around the world and he criticized what he called halfbaked spurious nationalism. Watch the speech sunday night at 6 30 p. M. Eastern time on cspan. The two candidates hoping to replace new Jersey Governor Chris Christie face one another for the last time before voters go to the polls on november 8. Republican candidate Lieutenant Governor kim guadagno and democrats phil murphy to questions on a number of topics including immigration property taxes and the legalization of marijuana. From William Patterson university in wayne, new jersey it comes courtesy of debbie cbstv in new york
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