The Budget and Tax Reform

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, it goes without saying that the Obama years were not easy for America's middle class. Many of the men and women we represent felt forgotten over the last decade. They found themselves stuck in a stumbling economy without the opportunity to get ahead, looking on as paychecks stagnated, jobs moved overseas, and government spent far beyond its means while middle-class belts tightened.

In my State and in so many more around the country, these are the problems that faced many families and communities over the last 10 years, and they are the concerns at the heart of the comprehensive budget that the Senate just voted to proceed to yesterday. This budget is a serious plan to put our country on a more responsible fiscal path and also to set us on a course for a more fulsome economy that lifts up the middle class.

On the fiscal side, it provides a path to balance with serious reductions to the growth of Federal spending, complying fully with previous spending caps while also providing a way to increase defense resources in the event that a bipartisan agreement on those caps can be reached.

On the economic side, it clears the way for committees to continue their critical work to spur steady economic growth while providing legislative tools to advance tax reform--the single most important action we can take today to help our economy reach its full potential.

As we all know, our archaic Tax Code is a significant roadblock standing in the way of America's economic future. It holds back families and small businesses. It makes it harder for those who are not well-connected elites to succeed. It even incentivizes companies to send jobs and investments overseas. That is really, clearly wrong.

In today's increasingly competitive global economy, we cannot afford a tax code that forces American workers to compete against foreign competitors with one hand tied behind their backs,

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as our current code does. We need to act.

Under Chairman Hatch's leadership, the Finance Committee has made progress developing commonsense tax reform goals. With further instructions from this budget, the committee will be able to complete its work and report legislation that promotes economic growth, helps keep more money in the pockets of hard-working men and women, and closes special interest loopholes while preserving core middle-class incentives.
Our tax reform goals center on a few things: bringing more jobs and investments to our country and then keeping them here, making the Tax Code fairer so it doesn't benefit just wealthy elites, and lowering rates so hard-working families are able to keep more of their paychecks.

The main goal is this: We want to take more money out of Washington's pockets and put more money in the pockets of hard-working men and women throughout our country. These are goals shared by the President, by his team, and by Senate colleagues. They are certainly shared by our Republican colleagues. I would think they would be shared by all of us, on both sides of the aisle, and our Democratic friends did share them until just recently. I hope they will continue to support these commonsense goals rather than just blindly oppose this effort to fight corporate offshoring and to eliminate loopholes for the wealthy, simply because they don't like the current occupant of the White House.

There is no need for our Democratic friends to continue inventing reasons to oppose tax reform or to make more claims designed to distort reality. I hope they will decide to change course and work together in a serious way to accomplish what should be bipartisan goals--goals they once vocally supported, seemingly until President Trump came along.

Let's deliver relief to American workers and families with an economy that reaches for its true potential once more, and the next step to get there is to pass the comprehensive budget before us with its tools to move our country forward.

I wish, once again, to thank Chairman Enzi and the members of the Senate Budget Committee for their fine work on this budget.

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