[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 166 (Monday, October 16, 2017)] [Senate] [Pages S6385-S6386] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] Tax Reform and the Budget Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, today I want to talk to you about time and how little of it we have to accomplish two incredibly important legislative priorities, one that is national in scope and potentially historic in impact. The first of those priorities is tax reform. We have a target date on the calendar, and now the clock is ticking. We have to get to work. The budget resolution that we will consider this week sets November 13 as our deadline for the Finance Committee to report a bill, and of course the distinguished chairman of the Finance Committee, Senator Hatch, is on the floor, and that is a commitment I know he takes very seriously. This bill, I hope, will broadly cut taxes on individuals and businesses alike and put more money in the pockets of working families across the country. What I like most about the plan I have seen so far is that it is bold. We are not trimming a little here and a tiny bit there. We are slashing rates, consolidating brackets, and eliminating pet credits and deductions. This is not JV tax reform. This is tax reform that is serious and based upon our commitment to get the economy growing again. Two weeks ago, the House approved its version of the resolution, and the Senate Budget Committee reported out its version. Now the Senate will consider the committee's resolution in the coming days. Why do we need that budget resolution? How is this all going to work? Well, these resolutions from each Chamber are the first step in passing pro-growth tax reform. They authorize the use of a tool called budget reconciliation. That means when the tax reform legislation is considered, it can't be stopped by less than a majority of the Senate. Of course, this isn't our first choice. I wish our colleagues across the aisle, our Democratic friends, would join us in bipartisan tax reform, but passing a budget resolution in the Senate is a must because this is something we can hold in reserve if our friends across the aisle simply refuse to participate in the process of pro-growth tax reform. It is a key procedural step because we have to fundamentally change the Tax Code before the end of the year. How well our economy does next year, how many jobs are created, and how much investment occurs here in the United States will depend largely upon our success in passing pro-growth tax reform this year. The clock is ticking, and we have to act with dispatch and with determination. [[Page S6386]] As the President said last week in Pennsylvania, ``we want lower taxes, bigger paychecks, and more jobs for . . . American workers.'' He is absolutely right. Lower taxes, bigger paychecks, and more jobs are the things we all ought to want, and they are worth the fight. Under this administration we are already seeing results. The economy is bouncing back. Unemployment is at a 16-year low. Wages are rising and the stock market is soaring. The slumbering giant, which is the U.S. economy, is now slowly awakening. Our economy reached more than 3.1 percent growth last quarter. Confidence, as the President stressed in Pennsylvania, is back when it comes to our economy and our future, but that confidence will not last long if we let this opportunity pass. We have to find ways to get companies to stay in America, to expand, and to hire in America. We have to find ways to take the money out of Washington's pocket and put it back into the pockets of those who earned the money in the first place--American families. We have to find ways to simplify the Tax Code, which, let's remember, hits families multiple times each year by taking their earnings, by stealing their time through compliance, and by trying their patience with complexity. Each tax return feels like three. I find it appalling that a majority of taxpayers are forced to pay someone else to do their taxes for them because they simply don't have the time or expertise to do it themselves. The unified framework released a few weeks ago will help. It calls for collapsing seven separate tax brackets down to three. That is what I call simplification. It expands the zero bracket so that if you are a married couple earning less than $24,000 a year, you will pay zero income taxes. It enhances the child tax credit. It repeals the death tax and special interest tax breaks, and it reduces the uncompetitive corporate tax rate to 20 percent and cuts tax rates for small businesses to the lowest level in more than 80 years. So let's make this happen before time runs out.