On the recordOctober 26, 2017
Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for yielding me the time. Mr. Speaker, the document before us is a partisan exercise to deliver large tax cuts to the wealthy. Working Americans will see their taxes go up, and our children and grandchildren will have to pay back the debt Republicans will create to finance these tax cuts. While they promise the American people revenue neutral tax reform that will simplify the Tax Code and close costly loopholes, the budget they are ramming through will borrow $1.5 trillion to finance these cuts. It will precipitate cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and other safety net programs upon which middle-income families depend. It proposes to eliminate the deduction for State and local taxes, increasing the tax burden on over 500,000 people in my home State of South Carolina. This document threatens the earned income tax credit; lowers the ceiling on middle-income savings; and eliminates the inheritance tax, which only affects those with estates valued over $11 million. It creates a pass-through for businesses that pay zero corporate taxes, effectively giving the owners of these companies a lower individual rate than the people they employ. If the Republicans would engage us, we could produce a bipartisan tax plan that would expand the earned income tax credit for single individuals and the child tax credit for working families. The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Flores). The time of the gentleman has expired.





