On the recordOctober 19, 2017
Mr. President, I wish to take a few minutes to support the effort to pass the fiscal year 2018 budget resolution. I am on the Budget Committee, and I am pretty familiar with the document. It provides a pathway to balance. It actually has a $197 billion surplus in 2027, and it allows for tax cuts. To Republicans--and Democrats too; you are welcome to join--the only way we are ever going to meaningfully get a tax cut is to pass a budget reconciliation instruction. This budget allows us to cut taxes. I hope some Democrats will join us, but if they choose not to, we can do it with a simple majority. If we don't pass this budget, we can't cut taxes unless we get 60 votes. With our friends on the other side--I think it is going to be hard to get any Democrats for a meaningful tax cut. They are not bad people; they just see things differently. When they spend money, they think that is good. They don't worry about the deficit. When we cut taxes, the deficit is the most important thing. My belief is that not only will we not have a deficit, we will actually have a surplus because this budget does two things: It restrains spending by $5.1 trillion over the next decade, and it actually creates a system for tax cuts to spur economic growth. If we could grow the GDP number by just 1 percent, that would be trillions of dollars of revenue.…





