Thune: A Once-In-A-Generation Opportunity for American Safety, Strength, and Prosperity
“This is about extending that tax relief, so the same people that benefited from it back in 2017 and for the last eight years don’t end up having a colossal, massive tax increase hitting them in the face come January 1.”
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WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) today delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor:
Thune’s remarks below (as delivered):
“Thank you, Mr. President.
“Mr. President, we’re going to vote here real soon on a bill that’s been worked on for many, many months.
“And I want to start by thanking the staff on the committees, the relevant committees, the floor staff.
“Everybody that’s been around that has to put in the hours and get us to where we are today – they are extraordinary people who are very dedicated to their jobs and to public service, and we’re grateful for that.
“And I will say, too, because … we went through the reading of the bill – which the Democrat leader just pointed out was important for people to hear – through the middle of the night.
“And, you know, I don’t think there was a big American audience for that.
“I think a lot of people were at their jobs, working their shifts.
“People like nurses and firefighters, who are going to benefit under this bill.
“To think that they were sitting there, in their jobs, watching the bill be read on the floor for endless hours in the middle of the night – I’m not sure what that achieved.
“But I’ll tell you what the senator said – the Democrat leader – back in 2021, when a Republican senator required that to be done.
“He said this, and I quote: ‘It will accomplish little more than a few sore throats for the Senate clerks who work very hard, day-in, day-out, to help the Senate function.’
“And those clerks are here today, and one of the reasons that we tried to give them a break last night is because they had to stay here the night before to read through the bill.
“In the dead of the night.
“Nobody watching.
“But they did it.
“So, hopefully they got a little bit of rest last night so we can start this off.
“Mr. President, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was one of the most successful economic policy pieces of legislation in history.
“And the data bears it out.
“You look at what happened after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed – unemployment hit a 50-year low, poverty levels at record-level lows, and incomes grew.
“Incomes and wages increased – most, among lower-income Americans.
“We started to narrow the wage gap as a result of the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
“So, what is this about?
“This is about extending that tax relief, so the same people that benefited from it back in 2017 and for the last eight years don’t end up having a colossal, massive tax increase hitting them in the face come January 1.
“Now, who are those people, Mr. President?
“It’s people – it’s families – making less than $400,000 a year on whom the bulk of this would fall.
“$2.6 trillion of this tax hike that they’re supporting would hit families making less than $400,000 a year.
“It would hit small businesses, to the tune of $600 billion in tax increases.
“These are pass-through businesses – the businesses who are out there creating the jobs every day.
“If we don’t do this, they’re going to face a $600 billion tax increase. That’s what we’re talking about.
“And if you want to put it in plain terms, if you’re one of those families making less than $400,000 a year, the child tax credit would be cut in half.
“The standard deduction would be cut in half.
“And you wouldn’t get the benefit that many taxpayers are going to get under the legislation that we’re going to be debating today – which would allow tips to go untaxed, allow overtime to go untaxed.
“So, those nurses and those firefighters that’re working the long shifts – not watching the bill be read here on the Senate floor – actually get something out of this that makes their families more able to cope with the challenges that they face every day.
“So, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was a … massive – by any stretch of the imagination – success.
“And probably no better evidence of that than the fact that the Congressional Budget Office, which has been quoted a lot here in the last few hours, actually underestimated the amount of revenue that would come into the federal government by $1.5 trillion.
“… Underestimated the amount of growth in the economy by 5.4 percent.
“Dramatically underestimated what it would generate in terms of revenue and what it would generate in terms of growth.
“So, let’s just say what this is.
“And by the way, billionaires next year will pay the same tax rate they’re paying this year.
“The people who are going to get hit with a tax increase if we don’t do something are those families making less than $400,000 a year.
“Who are going to see their … child tax credit cut in half, their standard deduction cut in half, their rates go back up to what they were in 2017.
“And in my state of South Dakota, the average family’s going to pay $2,500 more, if we don’t do something to extend the tax relief that was passed in 2017.
“Now, the other think that the Democrat leader got up and talked about is, ‘Oh, they’re going to be cutting Medicaid.’
“Mr. President, there are a lot of government programs that haven’t been looked at in a long time.
“We all acknowledge that, 75 percent now, of federal spending is what we call mandatory spending.
“Entitlement programs. Things that Congress doesn’t annually appropriate for.
“And it continues to grow at an uncontrollable rate.
“In fact, the growth in the rate of Medicaid spending in the last five years has been 50 percent.
“That’s not sustainable. We know that’s not sustainable!
“And in the time I’ve been here, we have never, ever done anything to reform and improve and strengthen these programs that are growing at an unsustainable rate, that will wreck our economy and wreck our country if we don’t start making some changes.
“And so, yes, there are some improvements and reforms to Medicaid to make it more efficient, to make sure that the people who are supposed to benefit from Medicaid do, and that it doesn’t go to people who shouldn’t benefit from Medicaid!
“Now, most of the increase in spending in Medicaid has been in what we call the expansion population – and that’s the number of people out there for whom states get a 90 percent reimbursement from the federal government.
“And so that has grown dramatically – and what does that represent?
“It’s a lot of able-bodied adults.
“People who should be working.
“People who are, perhaps, you know, don’t need to be getting the assistance that’s designed for people who are disabled and low-income elderly and pregnant moms.
“That’s what Medicaid was about.
“And states have, with the federal government, a partnership shared for the years at a traditional rate.
“The expansion population is 90 percent paid for by the federal taxpayers.
“And so what do the states do?
“They game the system. They get more federal money. They add more people to the rolls.
“And so you have people on the rolls today who are here illegally, and people on the rolls here today who are not eligible for this program, and you have people here today … in that program for whom there’s no work requirement.
“And so what this does, it makes some reforms.
“One of which – one of which – includes work requirements.
“I don’t think that’s a novel concept.
“It certainly isn’t a concept that I think most Americans would disagree with.
“In fact, it was a Democrat president – back in the 1990s, there was something called welfare reform.
“Bill Clinton, a Democrat president, proposed work requirements for welfare recipients.
“And you want to know something?
“The work requirements in the Welfare Reform Act passed back in 1996 and signed into law by Democrat President Bill Clinton had stronger work requirements than are included in this bill.
“Stronger work requirements, in a bill passed, signed into law, by a Democrat president, than what’s in this bill.
“And proposed, I might add, by a Democrat president.
“So, that’s one of the reforms that we’re making.
“And these are reforms, Mr. President, that’re going to make this program stronger, more effective, more efficient.
“Improve it in a way that it gets the assistance to the people for whom it was intended, and not to people who are gaming the system.
“And yes, we address the issue of provider taxes, which has been abused. No question about it.
“It’s another way to leverage federal money, get more federal money into the state coffers.
“And the states have used it for things, not just to cover people, but also for other reasons.
“And you’ve got states like New York and California, who have gamed the system.
“So, the whole issue of what we’re doing with the Medicaid program is to get rid of the waste, fraud, and abuse; make it work in the way in which it was intended; to cover the people for whom it was intended; and to make sure that we have work requirements included there.
“To the current policy baseline – everybody got up last night, and they were clamoring and yelling, very animated speeches, about how the Republicans are, ‘They’re using a current policy baseline. How could they ever do that?’
“Well, you know what?
“Back in 2012, President Obama and one of the people who was working for him at the time, named Jeff Zients, used the current policy baseline to make permanent the Bush tax cuts.
“And when he described it, Jeff Zients described it at the time, he called it the ‘alternative fiscal scenario.’ That’s how they explained it to the American people.
“And then he translated it, and said, what it is, it’s a current policy baseline.
“So, the Democrats have used this before.
“In fact, they kind of, you could argue, pioneered it.
“But current policy baseline is something that’s been used by both sides.
“So … spare me the hypocrisy and the noise about current policy baseline.
“‘Alternative fiscal scenario,’ he called it – and then, he went on to explain current policy baseline.
“Finally, with regard to the issue of the deficits.
“It is rich to hear Democrats, all of a sudden, concerned about debt and deficits.
“Really?
“I mean, I’ve been here a long time, and I’ve not been involved in a single spending debate and fight in which Republicans [weren’t] trying to spend less and Democrats [weren’t] trying to spend more – with one exception.
“With one exception. And that’s national security.
“Democrats are always willing to cut defense, but never want to cut anywhere else.
“That’s my experience – and I think it was borne out a couple years ago, when Democrats had then what we have now, which is unified control of the government.
“They had House, Senate, and White House, and so they had an opportunity to use reconciliation – which they did twice.
“One of the bills cost $2 trillion.
“The other bill cost $1 trillion.
“And it was all spending.
“And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the fundamental difference between us here.
“And I understand that.
“We have different views about the role of government.
“Democrats like government – and one of the things we know about government is, when you send money to Washington, money is power.
“And when you send money to Washington from the American taxpayers, that means Washington has more power, it has more control.
“And Republicans, fundamentally, have believed that it’s better if you allow the American people to keep their own money.
“That you distribute power out of Washington, D.C., back to state and local governments who are closer to the people and can make better decisions that’re more informed by what’s actually happening in their individual states.
“And so when we use reconciliation to keep taxes low – and by the way, that’s all we’re doing here, is extending current tax policy.
“We are preventing … over a $4 trillion tax increase on the American people.
“And when you vote against this, that’s what you’d be voting for.
“Now, a good example of the spending issue was the 2011 Budget Control Act, in which – authored by a number of people, including Senator McConnell – they created a supercommittee, equally represented on both sides of the aisle, and they met for a long time to try and come up with some ways that we could come up with ways to reform entitlement programs.
“And, of course, what happened?
“They deadlocked, because every Democrat voted against it, every Republican voted for it, and it even included some revenue increases – which is something Democrats are always for.
“So, getting up and talking about deficits all of a sudden, honestly, is kind of mind-blowing coming from this side of the aisle.
“What we are doing here is extending existing tax policy, using a current policy baseline, which was used by the Democrats, President Obama, Jeff Zients … a little more than 10 years ago.
“So, Mr. President, it’s time to vote.
“And Democrats will get a chance, they’ll offer all their amendments, and they’ll attack this thing as cutting taxes for billionaires.
“What we are doing here is extending tax relief for the American people, keeping their rates low, making sure they don’t have their child tax credit cut in half, their standard deduction cut in half.
“Including new provisions that provide more relief for working Americans – which is what President Trump campaigned on.
“No tax on tips, no tax on overtime, lower taxes for seniors, for Social Security recipients.
“These are all targeted at working Americans, working families.
“That is first and foremost what this is about.
“This, Mr. President, will make this country safer, stronger, and more prosperous.
“It addresses military modernization.
“It addresses securing our border.
“It addresses restoring energy dominance.
“It extends tax relief for the American people so they can avoid a $4 trillion tax increase at the end of the year.
“And yes, it includes some savings associated with reforms that are made in a way that targets assistance from federal programs to where it was intended to go.
“And yes, we have work requirements.
“Work requirements that were initiated by Bill Clinton and the Clinton administration during welfare reform back in the 1990s – only, I would say again, they’re not as strong.
“The work requirements included in that legislation back in the 1990s, what we have in this bill, the work requirements here, are not as strong.
“Mr. President, let’s vote.
“This good for America.
“This is good for the American people.
“It’s good for working families.
“And it’s been a long debate. I know people are weary.
“But at the end of the day, we want to get this done so that this country is safer and stronger and more prosperous – not only for today, but for future generations of Americans.”
Related Issues: Budget, National Security, Senate Democrats, Taxes
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