Republican Tax Bill

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, on another subject, taxes, President Trump and congressional Republicans promised working America the Moon and the stars with their tax bill. President Trump said that it would create ``a middle-class miracle'' and that everyone would get a $4,000 raise. Remember that? President Trump promised the American people that these tax cuts for the wealthy would trickle down--or torrent down--and everyone would get a $4,000 raise. If we asked Americans from one end of the country to the other to tell us by raising their hands how many of them got a $4,000 raise, maybe the top 1 percent would--maybe the top 2 percent--but not most Americans.

Wages are virtually stagnant. The promises the President made have not materialized. And when we measure wages against costs of everyday living--in other words, buying power, how much of a raise you get versus how much things cost--the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that year over year, hourly earnings have dropped by 1 percent. In other words, the American consumer--the average middle-class person, even with this tax cut--has less buying power today than they had last year. President Trump and Republicans promised a $4,000 raise, but average hourly earnings' buying power--the ability to live a decent life--for far too many Americans has gone down. Talk about a sleight of hand. Talk about an exaggerated--if not dishonest--promise. There it is.

While average working Americans continue to struggle to keep their heads above water, corporations and the wealthy are having a bonanza thanks to the Republican tax bill. As the President himself tweeted this morning, the tax bill made the Koch brothers and almost every multimillionaire richer at a time when they are doing great. We don't begrudge that people are wealthy and doing well, but the middle class needed this tax break far more than the rich, even though the rich had political power over our Republican friends--and when the wealthiest lobbyists and big, powerful corporations say jump, our Republican friends say how high, ignoring the middle class. So in the Trump economy, big, wealthy corporations are cashing in, the top 1 percent are doing great, and American workers are falling behind.

Listen to this. Already this year, corporations have dedicated over $600 billion--now approaching $700 billion--to corporate share buybacks and debt repurchasing programs, goosing their stock price but doing little to help workers. That is a record pace. These buybacks help the CEOs and wealthy shareholders but do nothing for the middle class.

There is also a new, troubling pattern being brought to light of corporate executives selling off stocks shortly after the stock price has been inflated. So they do the buyback, then they sell the stock and cash in. Here is the pattern: The Republican tax bill gave American corporations a mammoth tax cut; American corporations use some of those newfound profits to buy back and inflate the value of their own stock; executives of those companies then turn around and sell the stock at a higher price to pad their pockets.

SEC Commissioner Robert Jackson studied nearly 400 examples of stock buybacks since the beginning of 2017 and found that after half of them--half--at least one executive sold shares within the next month. That is American taxpayer money, President Trump. That is the money you are taking from the American people and giving to the wealthiest of the American people. The Republican tax bill is robbing the American Treasury to pad the pockets of wealthy executives and the richest Americans.

Now, if that wasn't bad enough, listen to what they want to do now. It was reported in yesterday's newspaper, the administration is considering doing an end-run around Congress to give another $100 billion tax cut mainly to the wealthy by cutting taxes on capital gains. The economy is already running hot on the artificial sweetener of tax cuts and deficit spending. Another $100 billion in tax cuts for the rich isn't just more gasoline on the fire; it is an incendiary device.

At a time when the deficit is out of control, at a time when wages are flat, at a time when the wealthiest are doing better than ever, to give the top 1 percent another big advantage is outrageous. It shows the Republicans' true colors: tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, empty promises for everyone else.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source