Kevin Roberts: “if I have time at the end of my remarks, I would like to yield to the distinguished Senator from Hawaii. I will try to…”

“if I have time at the end of my remarks, I would like to yield to the distinguished Senator from Hawaii. I will try to be prompt. Soon, this Senate will take a historic vote that will impact every American. These votes do not come very often. The last was decades ago. I think we all understand--or at least most of us understand--how critical tax reform is. All of us in the Senate, on both sides of the aisle, are familiar with the burdens and the complexity and the lack of competitiveness associated with our current tax system. It is abundantly clear that this complexity and our antiquated corporate tax system acts as a brake on our economy. It is equally clear that in recent years our economic growth rate--our gross domestic product--has been stuck at a historic low level of 1.9 percent or less. There are many opinions as to why our economy has been so stagnant, causing American job loss, unemployment, and more reliance on government programs. I want to underscore what the people of Kansas have told me repeatedly as to why, at least in part, this has happened. Small business owners, manufacturers, our community bankers, other lending institutions, individual workers laid off or workers hanging on paycheck to paycheck, and virtually everybody in rural America-- farmers, ranchers, and growers--at every townhall meeting have told me that the No. 1 issue of concern is the crushing weight of Federal regulation.…”