Supporting Veterans in STEM Careers Act

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 3 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, what you are about to hear from our Republican friends for the next 30 minutes is the following: a mixture of theology and science fiction. And then they are going to take you to revisionist history.

This is the most regressive piece of tax legislation that has come from the Ways and Means Committee in the 25 years that I have been a member.

This is not about simplification. When you have a chance to look at the phase-ins and the phaseouts, you will be passed out by the time they get to the expiration dates.

They say it is about simplicity; it was going to be on a postcard. You are going to need to carry a billboard around with you to understand what is in this actual bill.

And here is the best part: when Secretary Mnuchin said, Mr. Speaker, that under no circumstances would people at the top get tax relief. Well, I guess if you are formerly in the 39.6 percent tax bracket, which is summarily lowered to 37 percent, that that is dressed up as no tax relief for people at the very top. But then again, to help out with their argument, then they double the exemption on the estate tax, which will go from $11 million to $22 million.

The people at the bottom in this, they are going to argue: Everybody gets a tax cut. Well, here is where we go to revised history.

In 2001, President Bush said everybody gets a tax cut. The Federal budget of $1.3 trillion included a tax cut for everybody. The people at the bottom got a hundred bucks, and the people at the top got hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is a creative replay of exactly what happened.

And then in 2003, they came back and cut taxes again for people at the very top and blew a huge hole in the Federal deficit, which had been estimated at the time, after Clinton left on January 19, 2001, to project surpluses of $5.6 trillion over the next 10 years. Instead, the Federal deficit mounted to $6.1 trillion.

So here is the simplicity of their proposal today. They are borrowing $2.3 trillion to give a tax cut to people at the very top of American society. That is not in dispute.

In addition to borrowing the money, recall that the Federal Reserve Board said they are projecting, already, three increases next year in interest rates. We don't know what this is going to look like by the time they get done, but this, today, is more about ideology than it is about public policy

Think of it this way as well: This was done in 1 month. In 1 single month, the entire revenue system of the United States is being transformed.

I yield myself an additional 1 minute, Mr. Speaker.

Not one public hearing was held on this bill. And when they say today, ``Oh, we had 5 years of public hearings,'' we did not have one hearing on this bill--not one. No witness testimony was sought. No committee was convened for the purpose of a hearing. And then when we went to conference, we were all granted an opening statement, and we got to question the nonpartisan Director of the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Mr. Speaker, more than anything else today, this is a missed opportunity where both sides could have accomplished something great for the American people.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Levin), the longest serving member of the Ways and Means Committee, and a well-deserved 1 minute, I might add.

(Mr. LEVIN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Georgia, Congressman John Lewis, one of the great men of our times.

Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentleman an additional 15 seconds.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the very capable legislator and Democratic whip.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentleman.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett), a valued member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Thompson), a distinguished Vietnam veteran and a well- known and valued member of the committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Larson), the former president of the State Senate and a well-informed member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer), a very capable member of the committee, and a champion of renewable energy.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind), a very capable member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell), the very quotable Congressman.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley), the chairman of the Democratic Caucus, a good friend, and a former member of the committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Danny K. Davis), a very knowledgeable Member from the city of Chicago and champion of all things Chicago.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Higgins), a capable member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. Speaker, the stock market has been going up since March of 2009, and we have had 88 straight months of economic growth.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Alabama (Ms. Sewell).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. DelBene), who is very successful.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Judy Chu), the former revenue commissioner of the State of California, who is going to tell us about the State and local tax deduction ending.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Velazquez), who will tell us about the great harm that this does to New York and to the island of Puerto Rico.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Clyburn), the assistant Democratic leader.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), the Democratic leader.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to inquire as to how much time is remaining.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

So, in 1 month, we have taken the entire revenue system of the country without one public hearing, without any witness testimony, without the solicitation of one expert. ``We,'' meaning the Republican majority. They have decided to go forward with this reckless plan.

Contrast this with Reagan and O'Neill and Rostenkowski and Packwood in 1986.

When Gephardt and Bradley first offered their bill in 1982 on tax reform, 4 years ensued before the measure came to the floor for passage, and, in that time, 450 witnesses offered testimony. Every expert from every nook and cranny in America was invited to offer their vision of what a better tax system might look like. And those individuals--and I knew them all because I went to the committee when Mr. Rostenkowski was the chairman--saw that as the fabled achievement of their time in a bipartisan manner.

Do you know what else?

Secretary Reagan and Chief of Staff Jim Baker sat through the markups on that tax reform measure.

Now, Secretary Mnuchin, instead, has said, nobody at the top will get a tax cut. And then they cut the rate from 39.6 at the top to 37. Well, nobody at the top will get a tax cut.

We are going to double the exemption on this estate tax so that you might now keep $22 million rather than $11 million, without any formalization of taxation.

My friend, Mr. Brady--and he is my friend--he spoke before about the people's money.

Well, you know what the people's responsibility is?

A million new veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. That is the people's responsibility.

When we talk about responsibility and the people's money, Medicare is the people's responsibility. Social Security is the people's responsibility.

As we celebrate the extension of life expectancy in America, Medicaid today now cares for people with dementia and Alzheimer's disease. That is the people's responsibility.

They have carefully taken theology and wed it to science fiction.

Remember what we heard around here all these years?

Don't worry, tax cuts pay for themselves. That was the offering in 2001, $1.3 trillion worth of tax cuts.

Well, we get to 2003, another $1 trillion worth of tax cuts. By the way, there was time in between for a repatriation holiday, at 5\1/4\, all advertised on the basis of job creation, and layoffs ensued almost the next day.

This money is going to be used for stock buybacks and dividends. There will be little investment in this lost opportunity where we should have invested in community colleges and vocational education and apprenticeship programs.

Six million jobs in America go unanswered every single day because of a skills alignment problem and also the horror of what opiate addiction has done across the United States. It has sidelined 2 million people.

What they are telling us today is the following: We have got tax simplification. What happened to the postcard? As I said earlier, we are going to have to carry around a billboard for tax simplification to figure out what is in it. They keep talking about phase-ins and phaseouts. I am telling you, we will all be passed out by the time they get done with this. This is more complexity.

And wait until people have a chance over the next few weeks to sort through what is in this bill. But here is something you might give some thought to: the bottom quintile, you are going to get $60 a year. The second quintile, you are going to get $380 a year. The top 1 percent, they are going to get $51,000 a year. The top 0.1 percent, they are going to get $193,000 a year, all in the name of middle class tax relief.

As we proceed to the holiday, they are telling us this is their Christmas present. And you know what they are doing with it? It is going to be Christmas hangover debt, and they are putting it on the credit card and adding $2.3 trillion to the Federal debt.

Merry Christmas.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

Mr. Speaker, I certainly am.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, as a member of the Budget Committee, I rise in strong and unyielding opposition to the Conference Report for H.R. 1, the so-called ``Tax Cut and Jobs Act,'' which more accurately should be called the ``Republican Tax Scam Act.''

With this Conference Report House and Senate Republicans have pulled off a near-impossible feat: they have taken a bad bill and made it worse, much worse.

I oppose this cruel and immoral $1.7 trillion tax giveaway to wealthy corporations and the top one percent because it raises taxes on poor, working, and middle class families; explodes the deficit by adding an additional $2.2 trillion over ten years; and will require an estimated $5.4 trillion cut in funding for the programs ordinary Americans depend on for health security, educational opportunity, and economic progress.

Mr. Speaker, Americans are not fooled; they know trickle-down economics has never worked, and they see right through this phony tax plan and recognize it for the scam that it is.

That is why Americans reject this Republican tax giveaway by an overwhelming 2:1 margin.

Here are just a few of the myriad reasons why this Republican Tax Scam is by far the most unpopular tax measure ever considered by the Congress:

1. Raises taxes on 86 million middle class families;

2. Gives 83 percent of the tax cuts to the wealthiest 1 percent and explodes deficit by $1.7 trillion;

3. Gives new tax breaks to corporations shipping American jobs overseas which will eliminate jobs and drive down American wages and salaries.

4. The $1.5 trillion deficit that will be created by the GOP Tax Scam will be used by the Republicans to justify devastating cuts in Medicare and Medicaid.

This Republican tax plan is even more toxic to my constituents in the Eighteenth Congressional District of Texas.

Mr. Speaker, as you may know, my constituents and others in Texas are still struggling to recover from the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey, the worst storm ever to make landfall in the continental United States.

And by margins exceeding 90 percent, they reject:

1. Any cuts to Medicare or Medicaid to finance tax cuts for wealthy corporations and the top 1 percent;

2. Eliminating the mortgage interest deduction;

3. Eliminating the deductibility of state and local taxes;

4. Eliminating existing deductions for student loan interest or making taxable college endowment funds or college fellowships expenses.

Mr. Speaker, my constituents, and Americans across the country, oppose this unfair Republican tax giveaway because nearly half of the $1.7 trillion tax cut goes to just the top one percent.

In fact, the average annual tax cut for the top one-tenth of one percent is $320,000; for the top one percent it is $62,000, and for those earning $1 million a year it is $68,000.

Nearly 25 percent of the tax cut goes to households in just the top one-tenth of one percent, who make at least $5 million a year (2027).

While super-wealthy corporations and individuals are reaping windfalls, millions of middle-class and working families will see their taxes go up:

1. 13 million households face a tax increase next year.

2. 45 million households face a tax increase in 2027.

3. 29 million households (21 percent) earning less than $100,000 a year see a tax increase.

On average, families earning up to $86,000 annually would see a $794 increase in their tax liability, a significant burden on families struggling to afford child care and balance their checkbook.

It is shocking, but not surprising, that under this Republican tax scam, the total value of tax cuts for just the top one percent is more than the entire tax cut for the lower 95 percent of earners.

Put another way, those earning more than $912,000 a year will get more in tax cuts than 180 million households combined.

The core of this Republican tax scheme is a massive tax cut from 35 percent to 20 percent for corporations, but that is not the only way that the wealthy are rewarded.

The massive tax cuts for corporations are permanent but temporary for working and middle-class families.

Another immoral aspect of this terrible tax scam is that it abandons families that face natural disasters or high medical costs by repealing deductions for casualty losses and medical expenses.

Mr. Speaker, in what universe does it make any sense to eliminate, as this bill would, a deduction for:

1. teachers who purchase supplies for their classroom;

2. moving expenses to take a new job and taxes employer-provided moving expenses; or

3. dependent care assistance, making it harder for families to afford day care, nursery school, or care for aging parents?

This Republican tax scam jeopardizes American innovation and competitiveness by eliminating the deduction for student loan interest, which affects 12 million borrowers, and cuts total education assistance by more than $64 billion.

Under the extraordinary leadership of President Obama and the determined efforts of ordinary Americans, we pulled our way out from under the worst of the foreclosure crisis when the housing bubble burst in 2007.

Inexplicably, Republicans are now championing a tax scheme that will make the homes of average Americans less valuable because deductions for mortgage interest and property taxes are much less valuable than under current law.

A tax plan that reduces home values, as this one does, puts pressure on states and towns to collect revenues they depend on to fund schools, roads, and vital public resources.

Mr. Speaker, an estimated 2.8 million Texas households deduct state and local taxes with an average deduction of $7,823 in 2015.

But this is not the end of the bad news that will be delivered were this tax scam to become law, not by a long shot.

The proposed elimination of the personal exemption will harm millions of Texans by taking away the $4,050 deduction for each taxpayer and claimed dependent; in 2015, roughly 9.3 million dependent exemptions were claimed in the Lone Star State.

Equally terrible is that this Republican tax scam drastically reduces the Earned Income Tax Credit, which encourages work for 2.7 million low-income individuals in Texas, helping them make ends meet with an average credit of $2,689.

The EITC and the Child Tax Credit lift about 1.2 million Texans, including 663,000 children, out of poverty each year.

So to achieve their goal of giving more and more to the haves and the ``have mores,'' our Republican friends are willing to betray seniors, children, the most vulnerable and needy, and working and middle-class families.

The $5.4 trillion cuts in program investments that will be required to pay for this tax giveaway to wealthy corporations and individuals will fall most heavily on low-income families, -students struggling to afford college, seniors, and persons with disabilities.

America will not be made great by financing a $1.7 trillion tax cut for the rich by stealing $1.8 trillion from Medicare and Medicaid, abandoning seniors and families in need, depriving students of realizing a dream to attend college without drowning in debt, or disinvesting in the working families.

America will not be positioned to compete and win in the global, interconnected, and digital economy by slashing funding for scientific research, the arts and humanities, job retraining, and clean energy just to pay for a tax cut to corporations and individuals who do not even need it.

Mr. Speaker, the tax scheme presented here by Republicans is not a plan but a scam that represents a betrayal of our values as a nation.

This tax scam is not a revenue policy adapted for the real world that real Americans live in but a fantasy resting on the monstrous belief that the wealthy have too little money and that poor, working, and middle-class families have too much.

Our Republican friends continue to cling to the fantasy belief that their tax cuts for the rich will pay for themselves despite all precedent to the contrary and evidence that their tax scheme is projected by experts to lose between $3 trillion and $7 trillion.

Mr. Speaker, in evaluating the merits of a taxing system, it is not enough to subject it only to the test of fiscal responsibility.

To keep faith with the nation's past, to be fair to the nation's present, and to safeguard the nation's future, the plan must also pass a ``moral test.''

The Republican tax bill fails both of these standards.

I strongly oppose the Conference Report to H.R. 1, the ``Republican Tax Scam Act,'' and urge all Members to join me in voting against this reckless, cruel, and heartless proposal that will do nothing to improve the lives or well-being of middle and working class families, and the poor and vulnerable `caught in the tentacles of circumstance.'

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding time to me.

First, I want to start off by thanking all of the members and the staff of the Ways and Means Committee for all of their hard work in putting this bill together. I want to thank them for this.

I want to personally thank one of my predecessors from the Ways and Means Committee, who helped lay the foundation to get us where we are today, and that is Dave Camp. Dave Camp did a lot to help us get to where we are.

I want to, most of all, commend and express my profound admiration to the architect of this measure, Chairman Kevin Brady.

His endless patience and his persistence and his great demeanor have seen this through and gotten us to where we are today.

My colleagues, this is a day I have been looking forward to for a long time. We are about to achieve some really big things, things that the cynics have scoffed at for years, decades even; ideas that have been worked on for so long to help hardworking Americans who have been left behind for too long.

Today--today--we are giving the people of this country their money back. This is their money, after all.

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

Mr. Speaker, I would simply like to remind my colleagues and the Speaker that my minute can last for as long as I want it to last.

Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, today we are giving the people their money back. The bottom line here is the typical family making the median income in America will get a $2,059 tax cut next year alone. What this is is real relief for families who are living paycheck to paycheck, struggling to make ends meet.

They hear about the economy getting better. They turn on the TV, and they see the stock market going up, but now we need to make sure that these people in our communities and our country, who are struggling, see their own personal economy getting better, and that is what this is all about.

We have got to understand that times are tough for a lot of people in this country right now. Today, this is about how much better things can be. This is about more jobs, fair taxes. It is about bigger paychecks. It is about faster growth and upward mobility. It is about a strong economy that makes all of us stronger and healthier. Those are the effects, those are the benefits, of tax reform.

Here is the heart of it, and here is why this is so vital that we do this. Here is what it speaks to and what I truly believe is a generational defining moment for this Nation.

Our Tax Code is so broken that it undermines the very thing that makes our Nation exceptional in the first place. It punishes hard work. It discourages our entrepreneurial spirit. It dims freedom and free enterprise. It limits the potential of our own people.

When Americans see good jobs going away, when Americans wake up and they see the companies that they grew up with in their communities going away, they wonder if we have lost something bigger.

The mission that drives us here today is to restore this beautiful American idea. What is that idea? That the condition of your birth does not determine the outcome of your life. You can work hard, play by the rules, get ahead, and make a better life for yourselves and an even better one for your kids.

It is that sense of possibility. We want people to be free to strive to make the most of their lives. We want a country with the resilience to endure and tackle all of its challenges.

Mr. Speaker, economic growth and job creation will not solve all of our problems, but it will help make all of our problems much easier to solve. This is the direction that we are choosing here today because we know exactly where the status quo leads us.

For years, the powers that be have blocked and stonewalled reform under the umbrella of an arrogant, condescending, and paternalistic ideology--an ideology that seeks to limit mobility, to limit aspirations, to accept less in our lives. It is a view of the world that sees life and the economy as a zero-sum game. Your gain comes at my loss; therefore, we can't do it.

Look at where this got us: the worst recovery since World War II, flat wages, and an economy just limping along. Stagnation is a breeding ground for a class-based society where elites predetermine the outcome of our lives. That is not the American idea.

They will tell you this: Just hand over more freedom to the unelected bureaucrats, and they will figure it out, they know more, we will all just be okay. Hand over more of your hard-earned dollars to the IRS, and it will all be okay.

There is your scam right there. We know, given the opportunity, there are no limits to what our people, our fellow citizens, our brothers and sisters can

do. Yet for years now, this Tax Code has been skewed to the well connected, full of special interest carve-outs and loopholes.

Meanwhile, the hardworking family in America has got to jump through all the hoops that the IRS can muster. Reform means we bring rates down at every level. We clear out these loopholes so that people can just keep more of what they earn in the first place, because it is their money in the first place. No special favors, just basic fairness.

Reform means simplification, too. Nearly 9 out of 10 Americans will still be able to do their taxes on the form the size of a postcard. That is amazing.

And given the opportunity, there are no limits to what our workers and our entrepreneurs can do.

Yet while the world has changed, while the world has become more competitive, closer, smaller, our Tax Code has not. Instead of leading, we have been falling behind to the point where we now are the worst in the industrialized world at how we tax our businesses.

We tax our businesses a whole lot more than our foreign competitors tax theirs. They win; we lose. That is not fair.

It is basically open season for our competitors to come in and take our jobs overseas under the current Tax Code. Reform means we go from the back of the pack to the front of the pack.

Instead of the slow growth that we have been slogging through for years, we want to get back to real sustained economic growth. We want to build an opportunity economy where there is more demand for higher paying jobs. That is the whole purpose of all of this. Make sure that people can grow up and reach their potential. Make sure that the jobs are there to give people the careers they want so they can reach their potential, so their families can reach their potential. That is why we are doing this.

This is, without question, the single most important thing we can do to, once again, make America the best place to do business.

There is more than that in this bill. With this bill, were are finally restoring the freedom to make our own healthcare choices. By repealing the individual mandate at the heart of ObamaCare, we are giving back the freedom and the flexibility to buy the healthcare that is right for you and your family.

Finally, we are doing something truly to put America in the lead. We are doing something historic to develop our own energy resources. Some people have been working here since I was in the second grade on this project. After decades and decades in this Chamber, we are opening up a small, nonwilderness area of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge for responsible development. It is the most ambitious step we have taken in years to secure our own energy future.

This is one of those times to just take a step back. Let's just take a minute, collect ourselves, and step away from the noise.

We talk a lot in this job about turning points. There is no doubt that we are at one of those turning points right now. This one will determine the kind of country we are going to have this century.

But too often, we have seen before how doubt creeps in, how the tyranny of short-term thinking takes over, and history--history--fails to turn.

There is, after all, a reason that this has not been done in 31 years. This really is a generational defining moment. And let's let this generational defining moment be defined by optimism, not by fear; by the rising aspirations of our people and not the doom and gloom of managed decline that we have become too familiar with.

This is our chance. This is our moment. Let's turn at this turning point. Let's reclaim the principles that have guided us for generations. Let's recapture our destiny for generations to come so this beautiful story of the American idea is repeated and repeated and passed on to the next generation, a nation more united, more confident, more prosperous, and, Mr. Speaker, more free. Pass this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding and I salute him for his extraordinary leadership and being a champion for America's working families. I commend him and the Democratic members of the House Ways and Means Committee for putting forth the facts on what is in this bill.

Mr. Speaker, today we choose what kind of country America will be: one that champions the ladders of opportunity for all or one that reinforces the power of the wealthiest and well connected.

Outside the Congress, the American people have already made their decision. Polling shows that Americans oppose the GOP tax scam by a margin of 2 to 1. Hardworking families see right through the brazen con job Republicans are trying to sell them.

So why aren't our Republican colleagues standing with their constituents? Why aren't they joining us on insisting on A Better Deal for American families? Why aren't they joining us in demanding that we write real bipartisan tax reform that puts the middle class first?

Because helping the middle class has never been their goal.

From day one, the donors, lobbyists, and the wealthy and well connected came first. The Frankenstein monster of giveaways and special interest loopholes we are voting on today proves it, and this monster will come back to haunt them, as Frankenstein did.

Republicans claim that their bill is a middle class tax cut. The fact is, according to the Tax Policy Center, their bill raises taxes on 86 million middle class households.

When The Washington Post asked Edward Kleinbard, former chief of staff for the Joint Committee on Taxation, if the tax package in aggregate would mean a middle class tax cut, he said: ``That is delusional or dishonest to say. It is factually untrue. The only group you can point to that wins year after year and wins in very large magnitude is the very highest incomes.''

That is from the Joint Committee on Taxation former chief of staff.

The only greater delusion in this bill is the ludicrous Republican insistence, their claim that these giveaways to the wealthiest will pay for themselves.

Bruce Bartlett is the architect of Jack Kemp's supply-side economics. As Bruce Bartlett has testified in our hearing and in public, when it comes to tax breaks for the wealthy paying for themselves, he said:

It is not true. It is nonsense. It is BS.

He said the whole words.

In a few minutes, Republicans will vote to explode catastrophically our national debt at minimum of $1.5 trillion, likely $2.2 trillion or more.

Where are the vaunted Republican deficit hawks? Are they endangered? Are they extinct? Do they care about the deficit when we pass giveaways for the rich and big corporations?

They don't care about deficits, then. Tax breaks for the rich, corporate tax breaks: they don't care about the deficit.

Do Republicans only care about the deficit when the issue is helping children, seniors, our veterans, who are a large part of hardworking Americans?

My colleagues, my fellow Americans, remember this vote. Remember the vote, when they will cheer at the end of this vote, they will stand up and cheer, adding trillions to the national debt in order to give tax breaks to the wealthiest 1 percent and to big corporations. They will cheer that.

They will cheer when they say we can't afford to protect the health of our innocent children. They will cheer that.

Remember, they will cheer when they tell you we can't afford the next step, we can't afford Medicaid, Medicare, and a dignified retirement our seniors spent a lifetime earning. That is an applause line for them.

Remember this day when Republicans cheer for a bill that hands a $4,000 child tax credit to families of four earning $400,000 a year. If you earn $400,000 a year, you get $4,000 in a child tax credit.

But if you are poor, a single mom, a mother of two earning only $14,500, guess how much you get?

Seventy-five dollars. Seventy-five dollars.

Today we gather on this floor in the midst of a holy season. In this season, we celebrate the miraculous blessings of God. We reflect on the wondrous joy of children and our responsibility to them.

We remember our duty to live justly. For those of us blessed to serve in this Congress, we must remember our special responsibility to govern fairly, to meet the needs of all of God's children.

In this holy time, the moral obscenity and unrepentant greed of the GOP tax scam stands out even more clearly.

As the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said early on, ``. . . this proposal appears to be the first Federal income tax modification in American history that will raise income taxes on the working poor while simultaneously providing a large tax cut to the wealthy. This is simply unconscionable.''

They will be cheering it. Unconscionable. Remember what the Bishops said.

Now, here, get back to the Republicans. This is in sharp contrast to the words of Senator Hatch. Now, he is the chairman of the Finance Committee in the United States Senate and an author of this bill. He said: ``I have a rough time wanting to spend billions and billions and trillions of dollars to help people who won't help themselves, won't lift a finger, and expect the Federal Government to do everything.''

How about that?

Tell that to the moms we just saw speaking out with their children, children with disabilities, who wonder how this could be so cruel.

This is an act of misery, but not according to Senator Hatch. And that is in terms of getting back to our Bishops. In his encyclical, God is Love. And I have said this to my colleagues before, but with, obviously, no effect on the Republican side.

Pope Benedict quoted the urgent moral wisdom of St. Augustine 17 centuries ago, my colleagues. Seventeen

centuries ago, St. Augustine said: ``A State which is not governed according to justice is just a bunch of thieves.''

Pope Benedict went on to say: ``The State must inevitably face the question of how justice can be achieved here and now.''

In his words, he cautioned against ``the danger of certain ethical blindness caused by the dazzling effect of power and special interests.''

Mr. Speaker, is there justice in a bill that rewards corporations shipping jobs overseas? Jobs of hardworking American men and women and veterans, shipping those jobs overseas? Is there justice in that?

No, I don't think so.

Is there justice in a bill that spikes healthcare premiums and may add 13 million Americans to the ranks of the uninsured?

No justice there.

Is there justice in a bill that raises taxes on 86 million middle class families?

Here we are. Raises taxes on 86 million middle class families, and they try to present the delusion that it is a middle class tax cut.

Is there justice in a bill that hands a breathtaking 83 percent of its benefits to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans? Eighty-three percent of its benefits to the top 1 percent?

Is there justice in a bill that explodes the national debt to give the wealthy and the well connected a break and sticks the debt with our children? Is that justice?

I didn't think you thought so. I wish our Republican colleagues would join us.

This GOP tax scam is simply theft, monumental, brazen theft from the American middle class and from every person who aspires to reach it. The GOP tax scam is not a voice for an investment in growth or jobs. It is a vote to install a permanent plutocracy in our Nation. They will be cheering that later.

It does violence to the vision of our Founders. It disrespects the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform, who are a large part of our middle class, and to whom we owe a future worthy of their sacrifice. It betrays the future and betrays the aspirations of our children.

It morally demands a ``no'' vote from every Member of this House of the people.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 667, I call up the conference report on the bill (H.R. 1) to provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill currently under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Today, we are delivering on our tax reform promise to the American people. For the first time in over three decades, we are delivering a new Tax Code that provides more jobs, fairer taxes, and bigger paychecks to Americans across the country.

With this bill, a middle-income family of four earning $73,000 a year will see a tax cut of over $2,000. Our local job creators will see the lowest tax rates in modern history so they can invest more in their workers and in their futures. And our businesses will finally have a Tax Code that helps them compete and win anywhere in the world, especially here at home.

This is our moment to make history, to make good on our promise, and to make tax reform a reality for the first time in 31 years.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Nunes).

Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Roskam), chairman of the Tax Policy Subcommittee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Black), the chairwoman of the Budget Committee and a member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from South Dakota (Mrs. Noem).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Tiberi).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Kansas (Ms. Jenkins).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Paulsen).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Smith).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise), the majority whip of the Republican Conference.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Marchant).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Reed).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Holding).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. McCarthy), the majority leader of the House.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Smith), the secretary of the Republican Conference.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Indiana (Mrs. Walorski).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bishop).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Schweikert).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Rothfus).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 4 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, there is only one fundamental question today: Who gets to decide? When Americans work hard for their money, who gets to decide what you do with it? Is it you? Or is it some nameless, faceless government worker here in Washington?

When a family with young children is working feverishly to fund their kids' future, who gets to decide how they spend their money: them or Washington?

The single mom fighting every day trying to get by and give a good life to her daughter, who decrees where her money goes?

When a Main Street businessowner works late into the night and through the weekend, risking every penny they own to reach their dream, who gets that meager profit each day? Does it go to you, who earned it, exhausted at the end of a long day? Or is it grabbed by a Federal Government who doesn't even know your name except on April 15?

Our communities have watched their companies, jobs, and futures move overseas for too long. Our local businesses have been fighting other countries with one hand tied behind their back from an old, outdated Tax Code. They deserve a new Tax Code that allows them to compete and win anywhere in the world, especially here at home.

When they compete and win, who decides where that money goes?

Today, Washington says spend it overseas. Our new Tax Code says bring it home, spend it here in America to grow our jobs, our paychecks, our communities. That is why this moment is so important.

Opponents of this tax bill don't really worry about tax cuts for the rich. They worry about tax cuts for you because if you spend your money, they can't. If you have the first claim over your earnings, they no longer do. And if your dreams come before theirs, everything in Washington changes, everything.

Given a choice between the Federal Government and you, we choose you, the hardworking American taxpayers. We choose you, the only special interest that truly matters.

Americans deserve a Tax Code for a new era of American prosperity. We deliver on that promise because it is your money.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Ryan), who has devoted his life to this moment and tax reform, our Speaker of the House.

Mr. Speaker, let's pass this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.