Ap app. House and Senate Republicans held a press conference yesterday to outline their plans to rewrite the u. S. Tax code for the First Time Since 1986. This is 20 minutes. [ indistinct audio ] [ indistinct audio ] good morning, how are you doing . Nice pants. [ laughter ] just one of those you ready . Good afternoon, this is a historic day. This is a day that is a long time in coming. In fact, it was on this day under this dome in 1986 that Congress Took the final vote on the last overall of our tax code. That long. After that vote, president reagan said americans would quote finally have a tax code that they can be proud of. It was true then but things look very, very different today, dont they . Instead of a source of pride our tax code has become a constant source of frustration. Its too big, its too complicated. Its too expensive. Today we are taking the next step to liberate americans from our broken tax code. This unified framework delivers a new tax code that is simple, that is fair, that is progrowth and profamily. Cutting taxes on hardworking americans so that you can keep more of your own hardearned paycheck. Simplifying the tax code so that you can file your taxes on a form the size of a postcard. Reforming our tax system so that businesses, particularly Small Businesses can gain a Competitive Edge on our foreign competitors and taking bold steps to bring jobs and profits from overseas back home to the United States of america. This is vital to americas future. Its urgent. We want the American People to wake up in the new year with a new system so our tax writers on the house ways and means will work with the members of the Senate Finance committee to turn this framework into legislation. I want to thank our counterparts in the senate and in the administration and i want to especially thank President Trump for his leadership. To him, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity that is all about more jobs, fairer taxes and bigger paychecks for American Families. For all of us this is a new or never moment. The choice before us is clear, we can succumb to the talking heads on the tv and the special interests who want to maintain the status quo or we can Work Together to seize the moment and do what the American People sent us here to do. We can rise to the occasion and write our own future. We can get this done for more jobs, for higher wages, for bigger paychecks, for a stronger economy, for our workers, for our children and for the more prosperous and the more confident america that we all deserve. Thank you. Senator mcconnell . Well, no one has been more passionate about what were announcing today than the speaker for a longer period of time and hes laid it out very well. To summarize what this is about, its about getting america going again and growing again, providing jobs and opportunity here rather than overseas, providing middleclass tax relief for hardworking American Families so they can get ahead. Put another way taking money out of washington and putting it into the pockets of our citizens. Good afternoon. Thank you leader mcconnell and thank you speaker ryan for your leadership on a big, bold tax reform effort. Its exciting to be with you today united around a framework that paves the way for bold transformational tax reform. Americans have been waiting for years. Theyve been waiting too long for washington to fix our broken tax code. Theyve been waiting too long for better jobs, for more takehome pay, and a stronger economy. Today, House Republicans join with President Trump and our Senate Colleagues in letting the American People know were taking action now. Action that will bring more jobs, fairer taxes, and bigger paychecks. After years of work in the house and months developing this framework with our Senate Colleagues in the white house, the ways and Means Committee is ready to turn this framework into legislation that President Trump can ultimately sign this year. Were closer than ever to finishing what we started for the American People, for the middleclass workers and families and the main street job creators merely struggling to get by today. This is our year to chart a new course, to provide tax relief to millions of middleclass families and those who want to be middleclass families. To help workers and job creators of every size and every community compete and win everywhere in the world, especially here at home and the help to make the tax code simpler and fairer so americans can keep more of what they earned. So fair and so simple nine out of ten americans will be able to file their taxes using a simple postcard style system. Yes, we have a lot of work ahead but today marks a major step forward in that process. The ways and Means Committee, leader mcconnell, speaker ryan, were ready to build on this momentum and help get tax reform across the finish line for the American People and i know our Senate Colleagues are ready to do the same. With that, im proud to turn it over to the chairman of the Senate Finance committee, senator hatch. Well, thank you senator, were counting on you doing a really good job over here in the house and we know youll do it. I was here in 1986 when we did that massive tax reform and i have to say we reaped great benefits from it because the economy was turned around, we went forward like never before and we intend to do that this time as well. Im proud of our members of the house for the work theyre doing in this area, for our speaker, our chairman and others who are working in the house to try and bring a bill through that will make a real difference and im very proud of our leader in the senate and of course our finance committee in the senate of people working together and i hope we can bring democrats and republicans together in the best interest of this country. Were going to do it. Were tired of things going the way theyre going and were going to try to turn this mess around and i hope well have support from all of our senators and Congress People on both sides of the aisle for the benefit of our country. At this time id like to ask senator thune if hed come up, a member of the finance committee. Thank you, mr. Speaker. The framework announced today sends a loud, clear message and this is that tax relief is on the way for the american family. After eight years of economic and wage stagnation under the obama administration, families in this country, 50 of them, say theyre living paycheck to paycheck and a third of the families in this country say they are only 400 away from a financial crisis. That is unacceptable and thats why this tax relief effort will bring muchneeded relief for working families in this country. Lower rates for families, doubling of the standard deduction for families, expanded Child Tax Credit for families in this country will mean that they will have more to spend on themselves and their families instead of to washington, d. C. To the federal government. Thats a good thing for families in this country, this is about bigger paychecks, higher wages, more Economic Growth in our economy that benefits every american and i look forward to working with my colleagues on the Senate Finance committee, with our colleagues in the house of representatives and with the administration to make this happen. I hope that there will be some democrats who are willing to work with us because this is what they say theyre for, if theyre really for middle income tax relief why wouldnt they join hands with us and make it a possibility for the American People . Well look forward to what comes ahead. This is a very exciting time, something long overdue, something that will be very meaningful in the lives of americans. Id like to introduce the chairwoman of the House Budget Committee and also a member of the ways and Means Committee, diane black. Good afternoon and i want to say thank you to speaker ryan and chairman kevin brady for encouraging some really productive dialogue today in our conference. Its widely known that tax reform is high on the list of priorities for both congress and the administration. For years we have been talking about the possibility of reform that makes life easier for our hardworking americans and our Small Businesses trying to navigate this very complicated burdensome and expensive tax system. Now as the governing majority we have the opportunity to translate all of this talk into action and while im encouraged by the steps that have been taken in the right direction today, passage of the budget is still the key that unlocks any of these great ideas. As chairman of the House Budget Committee, im proud my committee has already provided the blueprint needed to start up tax reform. The most conservative Budget Approved by this committee in 20 years, it received using reconciliation our budget paves the way for progrowth tax reform that reduces tax rates, it simplifies the tax code as has already been said and it restores the trust in the American Economy and the work force and today pfsz retreat, its clear we all want to help our job creators and the middle class families. Theyre the ones who often get the hardest hit by the kuhn fusing tax system currently in place and im encouraged were closer to changing that. The next step that we need and should take is for tax reform is the passage of our budget. Next id like to invite senator scott to come, member of the Senate Finance committee. Thank you. When we thing about tax reform, the question that comes to mind, what is this really about for the average person back at home . I think of one of my constituents, sherry, a single mom, two kids working very hard. Needing more of her take home pay. Tax reform is about making sure that sherrys of the world, the single mothers of the world have an opportunity sootee more of their money stay in their paycheck because were taking less of it out of their paychecks. It reminds me of my mother who raised two boys as a single mother. When we talk about tax reform, we should remember the second component. Its about growing our economy so that the jobs of the future are created and manifested here at home. If i could say it as simpal as possib possible, i would say this tax reform conversation is about keep yo money. Next the chairman of the subcommittee on taxes and ways and Means Committee, peter thank you, speaker. Think about it. I can pull out this phone and click on an app for an airline, click on a flight and a seat and get an eticket sent back to me and a boarding pass all within the twinkling of an eye. Thats the way there is an expectation that we move forward as it relates to tax reform. We have tax reform thats not been updated in 30 years at a time when the entire internet didnt exist from a Commercial Point of view, at time when there was very little of the shared economy. This is a transformational moment for us to dump 70,000 pages of complexity and move something that is buoyant and inviting and ultimately transformational. Member of the Senate Finance committee, senator toomey. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I see this as just an amazing opportunity and therefore really a responsibility for us to enact the legislation that will be consistent with this framework, which will allow us to achieve the growth weve been waiting so long to achieve. Theres nothing normal about a meager 2 growth for the United States of america. Were capable of so much more and when we get this right, im confident we will achieve that and what that means for the hard working families i represent all across pennsylvania is it means a direct pay raise when we lower their direct tax burden. But it also means an indirect pay raise as more jobs are created, more businesses are launched. Upward pressure on wages allows people to have a higher standard of living. So im really excited about this opportunity and confident were going to seize the moment. Next, a member of the ways and Means Committee from arizona. Thank you, mr. Speaker. This is a big deal. Opportunity is coming. And opportunity is coming for every american. Fairness, simplicity, but something thats absolutely crucial and a lot of you have sat through the presentations on whats happening to our society if we do not get Economic Growth. Yeah, we have some tough math ahead of us but im going to make you the argument that growth is coming if we make this work and were going to make it work. Next, a man who used to be a member of the ways and Means Committee who is now a member of the Senate Finance committee. A little bit of a down grade but well still take him. From ohio. I like the energy in this room because this is a really exciting opportunity. And as i look at it, having worked on this for a few years, this is about two things, one, it is dealing with the middle class squeeze and its very real. Wages are flat on average. By the way health care is one of the biggest ones. This is going to give people the opportunity to have a healthier family budget. Middle class tax cuts are a part of this. It goes to getting this economy moving and having it generate more income and more wages. When you look at what the Congressional Budget Office has said, 70 of the benefit of lowering the Corporate Tax rate goes to wage growth. 70 of the benefit goes to workers and there are other studies that show its even higher than that. More jobs by going to the kind of proposal thats being talked about here, were going to bring back hundreds of billions, maybe even trillions of dollars from overseas to be invested in our economy and great jobs and opportunity. The former chair of the clinton administrations counsel of economic advisors has said if we do this, get the rates down and go to this International System to bring the money back home, were going to generate 144 billion a year in new repateriated earnings and 154,000 new job as year. This is about wages. Its about jobs, its about opportunity. And last but not least from miami, carlos car bello. My colleagues are right. This is quite an exciting opportunity of course we get to reform the tax code of the United States of america and we have the opportunity to improve the it lives of every single american in this country. Throughout this process ive thought a lot about young people in our country who perhaps has graduated. Willingness to work, seeking freedom. Because the economic recovery has not reached every single household and this is the opportunity to change that. So we really do have to deliver. [ speaking foreign language] [ speaking foreign language] this is about more jobs, fairer taxes and getting this done. Now were up to the point where were going to go watch the president give a speech. Thank you very much everybody. Appreciate it. For as long as i live i will never forget that in no other country on earth is my story even poshable. Its a story that hasnt made me the most conventional of candidates. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts. That out of many, we are truly one. For the past 30 years the Video Library is your free resource for politics, congress and washington public affairs. So whether it h