Tax Reform

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, this week I have been discussing how the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is creating breathing room in family budgets. Yesterday I focused on the tax cuts themselves. Lower rates, a doubled standard deduction, a bigger child tax credit add up to serious savings for middle-class families.

Today I want to discuss the permanent pay raises, bonuses, and new benefits that tax reform has enabled U.S. businesses to provide for their workers. Remember, this is exactly what our Democratic colleagues insisted tax reform would not--would not--bring about. To quote my friend, the Democratic leader, right here on the Senate floor in December: ``There is nothing about this tax bill that is suited to the needs of the American worker.''

Well, Republicans knew better. We listened to the economists who explained in an open letter that ``the question isn't whether workers will be helped by a corporate tax rate reduction--it's how much'' they will be helped.

The reason is simple. American workers can only thrive if the American businesses that employ them are given the tools to compete and win on the world stage. Here is what they need to compete: a 21st century tax code.

Most economists agree that the real impact of tax reform on workers' wages is a long-term proposition. The wage gains will roll in over the months and years ahead, but it is remarkable how quickly a number of American businesses made immediate investments in their workers.

At Charter Communications, which employs 95,000 people Nationwide, the base wage has already risen to $15 per hour because of tax reform.

Beginning in April, CVS implemented a new, fully paid parental leave program for full-time employees because of tax reform.

Educational opportunities are expanding for nearly 400,000 McDonald's employees across the country, after tax reform allowed the company to ramp up tuition assistance.

Tax reform has enabled LHC Group, a major healthcare employer with more than 50 locations and 3,600 employees in Kentucky alone, to expand raises for its employees and to grow the 401(k) options the company sponsors.

Workers at businesses of every shape and size are being helped all across our country: bonuses at a grain merchandiser in Chester, MT; a quarter-million-dollar expansion plan that creates 20 new jobs at a roofing company in Massillon, OH. It appears tax reform is very well- suited to the needs of American workers after all.

It is well-suited to the needs of hard-working parents who pocketed thousand-dollar bonuses to help with grocery bills and summer camp costs. It is well-suited to the needs of young Americans on the first rungs of the economic ladder, whose employer can now offer more help with continuing education.

This might come as a surprise to our Democratic friends who opposed tax reform at every turn. It certainly doesn't surprise those of us who fought for the American people.

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