On the recordJune 20, 2018
I want to join my friend, the Senator from Iowa, Senator Grassley, and talk about what has happened with the tax bill--the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, as the President insisted it be called because that is exactly what it was to do. It has been 6 months since it was signed into law, and it is clear that the country is thinking differently about the future. It is clear that there is more confidence in our economy than there has been in past years. It is also clear, frankly, that a lot of that confidence began after the last election and was reinforced by commonsense regulation instead of out-of-control regulation. The tax bill, on top of that, as it turns out, is doing the things those of us who voted for it said it would do and does not do the things people who were against it said were going to happen. I remember that nobody was going to get a tax cut--only to find out that 9 out of 10 people who paid income tax last year are paying less income tax this year. This week, the Gallup poll organization found that the percentage of Americans who are satisfied with the direction of the economy is the highest it has been in almost 15 years. In May, small business optimism increased among small business owners to the second highest level in the National Federation of Independent Business survey's 45-year history. In fact, there were several records that were broken in May. Compensation increases hit a 45-year high.…
