On the recordNovember 30, 2017
Mr. President, I intend to call up my motion to commit the bill to the Finance Committee, which is at the desk, and it is supported by Senator Harris. Mr. President, while we are working out the consent, the tax bill before us is not for the middle class. As a matter of fact, this is a big cut for corporations. This is not a cut for you. It is not a cut for hard-working families. It is so lopsided as a cut to big corporations. The fact is that it is not for the middle class. We need to be frank. The truth is that the bill treats the corporations much better than regular people. For example, over a 10-year period, if you make $75,000 or less, you will be hurt by this bill. If you are a small business owner and your taxes are a passthrough at the individual rate, your taxes are going to be much higher than large, multinational corporations. If you buy your health insurance in the individual market, there is a good chance that you are going to lose access to affordable health insurance. These are the facts, and it is just plain and simple. Sure, there are tax cuts for some of the middle class, but those tax cuts go away after 8 years. In 2026, they are gone. By contrast, the tax cuts for big corporations are made permanent, and that is simply not treating people fairly. So what I am suggesting is that we send this bill to the Finance Committee to work out a bipartisan compromise on how to make middle- class tax cuts permanent.…





