Rich Neal: “Mr. Speaker, before I yield to the Democratic leader, I want to talk a little bit about what I began with. First of all…”

“Mr. Speaker, before I yield to the Democratic leader, I want to talk a little bit about what I began with. First of all, let me just say as a courtesy and as a member of the Ways and Means Committee for 33 years, this debate should be taking place during the day. I know the Members on the other side feel the same way. There is no reason at 10 minutes after 5 o'clock in the morning to debate a bill of this consequence. It is as simple as that. These were legislative courtesies that we once extended to each other. There is no reason for it to play out at a time when most Americans can't dial in to hear the debate. Mr. Speaker, there is no getting away from the fact that the Republican Party, the party of fiscal rectitude, the party that has lectured us for decades on spending patterns, is about to borrow $4 trillion for a tax cut that is overwhelmingly going to go to people at the very top including the billionaire class. What is troubling about it is that if we look back at these tax cuts, as I noted, it is $10 trillion of tax cuts from 2001 to this moment. In 2017, it is borrowed money. It is $2.3 trillion of borrowed money. This is $4 trillion. When we are done paying the interest on it over the next 5 years, as the bond market reminded us again today, it is closer to $5 trillion, and the Republicans are the party of fiscal rectitude.”