Tax Reform

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on one final matter, the U.S. economy continues to receive a lot of attention.

In June, from the New York Times: ``New milestones in jobs report signal a bustling economy.''

In July: ``Sales of small businesses are going through the roof.''

Just yesterday, in the Wall Street Journal: ``U.S. workers get biggest pay increase in nearly a decade.''

Let's explore the last headline.

According to data from the Department of Labor, employee compensation grew by 2.8 percent over the past 12 months. That is the fastest employers have increased what they spend on employee pay and benefits in any 12-month period since the one that ended in September of 2008. Given what we know about the labor market, this is hardly surprising. From Main Street businesses to manufacturers, job creators are faced with heightened demand. That means more Americans can come off the sidelines and find a quality job, and that means that businesses compete to hire and retain workers.

Every week--practically every day--yields more impressive headlines, more testimony from middle-class families and small businesses about how this economy has improved their lives.

It has been little more than 7 months since a united Republican government passed historic tax reform, and it has been about as long since the House Democratic leader predicted our policies would bring about ``Armageddon,'' and about 7 months since my friend the Democratic leader, here in the Senate, predicted that no part of tax reform would turn out to suit the needs of the American worker--none of it.

But Republicans saw past the scare tactics and did what we knew to be right for the country. We pursued a pro-growth agenda to get Washington's foot off the brakes that were restraining job creators, to take Washington's hand out of the pockets of working families, and to help create the conditions for communities across the country to succeed. Any one of these goals could have been a bipartisan priority, just like all of the other good work I have discussed this morning.

Tax reform, historically, had been bipartisan, but this time, our colleagues listened to the far left and decided to stand in complete partisan opposition to letting Americans keep more of their own money. Now the American people are reaping the benefits of a pro-growth, pro- opportunity agenda. Now they see whose policies benefit them.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source