Tax Reform

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, comprehensive tax reform represents the single most important action we can take now to grow the economy and help middle-class families get ahead. It is the President's high priority. It is a priority we share here in Congress. The work of the tax-writing committees on tax reform goes back literally years, and it continues today.

This morning, the Senate Finance Committee will hold another in a series of hearings on comprehensive tax reform. Under the leadership of Chairman Hatch, the committee is working to simplify the tax system to make it work better for American individuals, families, and businesses.

As Chairman Hatch knows, our current Tax Code is overly complex, with rates that are too high and incentives that often literally make no sense.

Senator Hatch understands how our broken code makes it harder for American businesses of all sizes to compete and win in an increasingly competitive global economy--how it actually incentivizes our companies to ship operations and American jobs overseas. Chairman Hatch and colleagues on both sides of the aisle understand how our broken code makes it harder for middle-class families to succeed--how it depresses wages, weighs down job creation, and crushes opportunity.

It is time to fundamentally rethink our Tax Code to make taxes lower, simpler, and fairer for American families. Fortunately, we have a once- in-a-generation opportunity to do that.

This morning's hearing in the Senate Finance Committee is a part of the wide-ranging conversation to shift the economy into high gear after 8 years of an Obama economy that too often hurt the middle class and seemed to hardly work for anyone but the ultrawealthy.

With lower taxes and a growing economy, jobs can come back from overseas and stay here, families can keep more money in their pockets to spend in the way they want to, and individuals can have access to more opportunities to buy a new home, to start a new business, or to send their kids to college. To put it simply: Our efforts are about more jobs, more opportunity, and more money in the pockets of the middle class.

Without tax reform, American families will be forced to continue living under an unfair Tax Code with rates that are too high, American jobs will continue to be shipped overseas, and small businesses will be increasingly uncompetitive against foreign companies. That does not benefit the middle class. These are the real consequences of the current Tax Code, and we should all want to work together to put an end to it. Our friends on the other side of the aisle say they support comprehensive reform of the system, and I hope they will join us in this effort in a serious way.

Finally, I thank President Trump and his team for their work throughout this tax process. We will continue to regularly engage with them, working together to bring relief to the American people.

I also thank Chairman Hatch for his leadership on this issue. Along with my colleagues, I will keep working to deliver relief and economic hope to our middle class.

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