On the recordDecember 4, 2017
I thank the chairman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, before I start, what I wanted to share is I have been blessed to be on the Ways and Means Committee now for 11 months. I have found the members on the left, the right, a group of folks with pretty high IQs. It is a smart bunch. We have different views, even within our own, within your own, but it is fascinating. It is joyful to be on a committee where when you do argue with each other, particularly when we have conversations in the back, they happen at a fairly high level. Can I give you sort of a personal global view of how I am viewing this tax reform? I truly believe this will be the single biggest, most important vote I make in my life. We all know what status quo is. Status quo, in many of the models, basically says, in about 15, 18 years, we hit a debt crisis. Are we arguing here for status quo or our change, or are we having an argument here that you don't like our changes, but you also agree we need to have a revolution in our economic growth? If we build our lives as it is set right now with a 1.8, 1.9 percent GDP growth for the next three decades, my 2-year-old's future is miserable. Those very seniors whom someone was just speaking about, do you understand what happens to those earned entitlements? There is no money. We hit a debt crisis. We are just a few years away from publicly held debt equaling the size of our entire economy.…
