On the recordDecember 7, 2017
I come down here again finding myself in a position, not planning on speaking. I am down here to speak on a bill that I have on the floor--a bipartisan bill, I might add. I can't help but address what I am hearing from the other side. First you are hearing: This is getting rushed through. We need to slow this down. We need to be thoughtful. I ran in 2010 talking about tax reform. Many of my colleagues ran in 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016 talking about tax reform and the need for it. Even President Obama talked about this, when he was saying we needed to lower the corporate rate from 35 percent down to 25 percent. Why? Because we are uncompetitive. We are uncompetitive as a country. Now you are hearing the other side saying: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. We have to slow this down, slow the whole train down. What they want to do is protect the status quo. They want to protect the status quo, which I believe is unacceptable. We know that there is great agreement between the House version and the Senate version, delivering $24,000 on a standard deduction, which is going to bring real tax relief to working families; making sure that pass-throughs, those small businesses, those S-corporations and LLCs and sole proprietorships, actually get treated better and, at the least, the same way that a C-corporation would. Here we are on the cusp of making sure that we advance the ball. ____________________
