Cornyn: Historic Tax Reform Will Ensure American Dream Stays Alive

Today on the Senate floor, I discussed the Democrats’ refusal to help pass the first real tax reform in more than three decades despite their support of key provisions in the proposal. Excerpts of my remarks are below, and video of my remarks can be found here.  

Listening to my friend, the Democratic Leader, leads me to conclude that he and his party have given up on the American Dream. They want to settle for the status quo, which is stagnant growth of our economy and jobs where people haven't seen increases in their wages for years. And, yes, they seem to be rooting for failure. That seems to be the attitude of our missing in action congressional Democrats on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Tax reform is hard. That's the reason it hadn't been done since 1986. And it's even harder when you have a political party that's determined to fight against every single proposal that we have made in our tax cut and tax reform bill, including ones that they themselves have championed in the past.

I've heard the Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Wyden from Oregon, talk about corporate giveaways. The Democratic Leader just alluded to the same thing. Yet we are embracing the same sort of approach that they took in previous tax proposals and that President Obama advocated for in his State of the Union in 2011 when he asked Republicans and Democrats to work together to lower the highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized world. 

We now have a consensus about how to get this bill across the finish line and to the president's desk before Christmas. We will vote on this final bill after the House does tomorrow, hopefully by tomorrow night, perhaps it will carry over into Wednesday morning, but we will get it on the president's desk for him to sign into law before Christmas as we have pledged.

Our bill will simplify the tax code by eliminating many special deductions and credits while broadening the base and bringing down rates.

The Federal Reserve, an independent government institution, recently said that this tax package is one of the factors that have led them to increase their projections for growth next year… They currently project the economy growing at a 2.1 percent, but she said next year it could go to 2.5 percent. So even if you believe that very conservative estimate, that is enough growth to compensate for the cut in taxes and the loss of revenue next year.

Some of us believe that the American Dream is still alive, that we don't have to settle for second place. We don't have to settle for the status quo. We don't have to settle for flat wages and fewer jobs. We can do better. We believe we have done better in this piece of legislation which will help reawaken the slumbering giant of the American economy. It will put Americans back to work. It will mean more take-home pay. It will mean a better standard of living.

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