Providing for consideration of the conference report to accompany 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; providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 3312) to amend the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to specify when bank holding companies may be subject to certain enhanced supervision, and for other purposes; and for other purposes.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me the customary 30 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, I think America is pretty apprehensive this morning, certainly those who know that two American Presidents and one Governor of Kansas have tried trickle-down fairly recently and found it did not work at all and, indeed, caused great economic harm. But we are walking into trickle-down once again.

I think there is a word that describes when you do the same thing over and over again expecting a different result--I won't use that word, but I suspect most of us know exactly what I am talking about-- particularly at this time when this economy was really booming, really doing well.

I appreciate that there were pockets where people were not getting jobs, and this was pointed out by Richard Neal frequently last evening. We have such a skills gap that jobs are going unfilled in America, and that is what we really should be working on today.

The fact is that corporations are awash with money. The stock market is booming, and we have the lowest unemployment rate in 17 years. Why in

the world would we trifle with that to try a failed trickle-down policy again?

Now, emergency procedures were used to bring the bill up before us today. Now, what is this urgent attention that nobody could have any amendments or anything, that it was an emergency?

We are not reauthorizing the Children's Health Insurance Program, which a lot of people think is an emergency because it provides healthcare to more than 9 million children. We are not reauthorizing community health centers, which serve more than 25 million people; and, after killing Planned Parenthood--the money--that means a lot more people will need a community health center. We are not renewing the Perkins Loan Program, which many low-income students rely on for their education.

Those three programs expired on September 30, but we are not considering them today. Instead, despite a record of 86 months of job growth--every single month for 86 months we have grown jobs--and an unemployment rate that remains steady, the majority is prioritizing tax cuts--not tax cuts for the middle class.

Don't let anybody tell you that this is tax reform. It isn't. It is a moving around of rates, but very specifically geared toward helping the rich with nothing much for the middle class who work hard to make ends meet, but tax cuts for the wealthy. The middle class will see their money go directly to the rich.

That is what the bill was designed to do. You can tell by who wrote it. There is not a single Democratic fingerprint or breath anywhere to be found. Instead, it was crafted by the lobbyists who virtually run Washington under the majority's leadership. Some swamp clearing.

Consider this: there are 11,000 registered lobbyists in Washington, D.C. More than half of them--more than half of 11,000--reported working on the issues involving taxes during the first three quarters of this year. Each of the 20 organizations that hired the most lobbyists to work on tax issues have reported lobbying specifically on tax reform, covering the matters included in this bill.

Now, this is the quote of all time. One lobbyist admitted to The New York Times that few Members actually had any influence on the final product. He said, ``You are dealing with 14 people instead of 535 people,'' saying specifically, as much as possibly could be said, that the 535 people in the Congress representing the people of the United States didn't do a thing on this. They wrote it.

The New York Times has reported that the travel industry lobbyists directly emailed those writing the bill to kill an amendment on tourism because a competitor who favored it has been critical of President Trump.

Business lobbyists, after already securing a lower corporate tax rate in an early version of the bill, called the members of the majority and made it even more favorable to them. They secured the removal of the corporate alternative minimum tax, a provision designed for the very rich to get away with paying no taxes at all, and we know some people who have done that.

The majority has been very clear about whom the bill is written for. One of the members of the majority, Congressman Chris Collins, said: ``My donors are basically saying, `Get it done or don't ever call me again.'''

But, Mr. Speaker, what about the average American? What about workers and members of the middle class who can't write big campaign checks or who don't have an army of lawyers to scour the Tax Code on their behalf? Those are the people who are going to be forced to pay the price for providing the wealthy with these tax cuts.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is certainly a man who prefers business and knows a thing or two about running a business. He recently wrote this:

``Corporations are sitting on a record amount of cash reserves: nearly $2.3 trillion. That figure has been climbing steadily since the recession ended in 2009, and it is now double what it was in 2001. The reason CEOs''--this is an important point. ``The reason CEOs aren't investing more of their liquid assets has little to do with the tax rate. CEOs aren't waiting on a tax cut to `jump-start the economy'--a phrase of politicians who have never run a company--or to hand out raises. It is pure fantasy to think that the tax bill will lead to significantly higher wages and growth, as Republicans have promised.''

Now, that is not somebody who is an enemy of business, and he has called this bill a trillion-dollar blunder.

This is really a remarkable time in the United States, knowing that we are on the brink of passing a bill that will adversely impact virtually every American except the rich. The majority has the votes, and there is not much Democrats can do to stop it.

Let me say again, I am glad the Democrats are not involved in writing it, but it is an insult to the word ``reform'' to associate it with this bill.

The American people know they are not getting what they were promised by the majority. We know the President campaigned mightily on doing away with carried interest, but it is still in the bill.

The bill hurts the middle class, children, veterans, and the elderly by limiting or outright eliminating many of the deductions that they rely on.

Under this bill, the personal exemption is eliminated, the mortgage interest deduction is limited, the State and local tax deduction is limited mightily, and the moving expense deduction for individuals has been eliminated. Even the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate is eliminated. That will cause premiums to go up by 10 percent for those in the individual market, and 13 million people will lose their insurance--13 million.

I want to pause on that because countless times I have stood here at this very spot when there were almost 60 bills to repeal and replace ObamaCare, so we have been able to insert this now in the tax bill, which will really hurt it. I have always wondered why there was such a rush to take healthcare away from persons, and I guess somehow that money--obviously, that Medicaid money--will pay for a lot of these tax cuts for the rich.

All the tax cuts made for individuals will expire in 2025, but the tax cuts for corporations are permanent. That is not what we call reform. That keeps our Tax Code complicated by design. Wealthy families and big corporations can continue taking advantage of a system that they helped create.

Broken promises are embedded throughout the legislation. For years, I have heard members of the majority come to the floor talking about the need to address the national debt. Apparently, that was little more than a talking point, because this bill explodes the deficit by $1.5 trillion and it is completely unpaid for. Because of that, Federal law requires cuts to programs Americans depend on, including a $25 billion cut to Medicare.

This isn't fear-mongering; this is fact. Speaker Ryan said just last week: ``We're going to have to get back next year.'' Next year we are going to say: Oh, my, we are going to have to do something about this spending and this debt, and so we will have to cut spending.

What is he going to cut? The things he has always wanted to cut. He says: ``We're going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit.''

We have known he has wanted to do that for a long time.

So let me say this to the public watching today: When this majority speaks of reform, you should be very worried about your future. They pushed this scam under the guise of so-called reform, but it is simply a corporate giveaway. Soon they will be back here talking about reforming Social Security and Medicare to pay for what is going to happen here today.

Let's call it what it really is: a systematic dismantling of the social contract. It will impact everyone from children to veterans to the disabled. It begins today with this bill to help the wealthy who haven't even asked for it.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Castor), a conferee, I believe.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Yarmuth), the distinguished ranking member of the Budget Committee.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Langevin).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Vermont (Mr. Welch).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro).

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

Mr. Speaker, this has been the most awful process. Mr. Barton wanted to know why the Democrats weren't involved. We weren't involved in any of it, for heaven's sake. We almost didn't get to see a copy of what they had.

But I think the debate we have had here today must be very similar to the one we had in the Reagan administration. And David Stockman, who talked Ronald Reagan into trickle down, he says today it didn't work. It didn't work then. It didn't work for President Bush. It didn't work for the Governor from Kansas, whose name escapes me for the moment. Very recently, it didn't work, and it isn't going to work this time.

So I am really appalled that we are doing it. But I have to say that this was the worst process that any of us have ever been through. We operated on Thomas Jefferson's manual in the Rules Committee. We didn't even come close.

Mr. Speaker, let me speak on the PQ. We must protect middle class families against the disastrous Republican tax plan, and if we defeat the previous question, I am going to offer an amendment that will prohibit any legislation from being considered on the floor that limits or repeals the State and local tax deduction or repeals the ACA's individual mandate.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment in the Record, along with extraneous material, immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel), the ranking member on the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Speaker, I have one more speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline).

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

Mr. Speaker, the Members of the majority have lined up today to tell the American people how great this bill is. If that is true, why were they afraid of holding a single hearing or listening to a single outside expert?

The 1986 tax bill had over 30 hearings and 430 witnesses and took well over a year; this one about three 3 months--written, apparently, by lobbyists. There wasn't a single hearing held on the text of this bill, not one. It was jammed through the Ways and Means Committee where our amendments, the Democrats', were blocked.

Democratic Members had under an hour to review the final text before voting. It was rushed to the Rules Committee a day earlier than announced with only 4 hours' notice, so nobody had any chance to read, and the majority there blocked 140 bipartisan amendments.

This has been a secretive process on both sides of the Capitol. Senators received the text of the final bill also within an hour of the vote. The nearly 500-page bill in the Senate was riddled with errors, last-minute edits, and illegible handwritten changes in the margins. There was a single meeting of a conference committee between the House and Senate. Members there were

prohibited from offering amendments or even seeing the negotiated text.

Imagine that, you couldn't even see what they were supposed to vote on. The Senators and Representatives sat around the table for show while the press reported that the deal, even before the meeting had started, had already been reached. The Democrats had no say at all.

House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady says he is proud of this process, but it will take a separate bill just to correct some of the errors here. And there is no reason to believe he would include Democrats in that process either. It would be another partisan effort.

Let me remind everyone watching that we used emergency procedures to meet this onerous bill. In this Congress, disaster relief is not an emergency. Isn't that amazing? Funding CHIP and community health centers is not an emergency. Disaster funding is not an emergency. But rushing these tax cuts to the wealthiest among us is an emergency.

This bill, which has no deadline, is their top priority, while real emergencies are being ignored, and it is shameful. I urge a ``no'' vote on the previous question on the rule and the bill.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 667 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Slaughter), my dear friend, who is the ranking member of the Rules Committee, pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only.

General Leave

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this rule and the underlying legislation.

This rule provides for consideration of H.R. 3312, the Systemic Risk Designation Improvement Act of 2017; and the conference report accompanying H.R. 1, the Tax Cuts and JOBS Act.

Mr. Speaker, this rule, and specifically the underlying conference report, is the reflection of a bicameral agreement between the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, whereby we took some of the best ideas from across not only our conference, but this country, and from our respective ideas to make a tax bill that would combine them for the best interests of the American people.

Mr. Speaker, the bottom line is that what we are doing here today is that the Republican Party is relying upon the greatest system ever invented: the free enterprise system.

The free enterprise system has brought the United States of America not only the greatest economic opportunities in the world, but it is a system of rule of law. It is a system of a Tax Code. It is a system of ideas that has made America the envy of the world.

Mr. Speaker, I also get politically what is happening. We are taking what the Democratic Party and President Obama did to raise taxes by $1 trillion, the largest tax increase in the history of the United States, and we are trashing that today.

We are saying that the production that it made of 1.2 percent over 8 years is unacceptable to the United States of America. It was unacceptable then, and we will not allow that to be the gauge that we will measure our success in the future.

Secondly, we are also going to deal properly and fairly with the Affordable Care Act, a law that placed extensive burdens not only on people who did not want the healthcare bill that was placed forward, but placed a tremendous cost on the middle class of this country and the American people.

What we are doing today is bold. We are going to make the big deal the big deal the American people want and need: a stronger, brighter economic future.

It is a progrowth bill that will overhaul our Tax Code and unleash our free enterprise system. It lowers tax rates on businesses of every size so job creators can focus on hiring workers, increasing paychecks and growth.

Growth and competition are the keys to an expanding economy. More jobs and increased wages in my home of Dallas, Texas, have allowed Texas to lead the Nation not only in job creation, but to make us the envy of the world. We are now going to do that for the entire United States and help make back home for every Member of Congress competitive in the world market.

With the highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized world, the United States today has a broken Tax Code that has forced businesses to not only move their jobs and research overseas; it has forced us to be able to strand billions of dollars of economic advantage that should be in the United States.

That changes today. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will stop and reverse that trend. It will encourage American companies to bring their jobs and their operations back to the United States by lowering corporate tax rates to be competitive anywhere in the world at 21 percent and encourages U.S. businesses to bring their foreign earnings home, unleashing trillions of dollars in our economy. That is the future that the Republican Party wants for the United States of America and the free enterprise system.

The conference report also simplifies tax filing. It eliminates costly special interest tax breaks. It protects the abilities of small businesses to write off interest on loans and offers a first-ever 20 percent tax deduction to businesses organized as S corps, partnerships, LLCs, and sole proprietorships. This will be a boom not only for the stock market, which we have seen since the day after the election, but we have seen a boom on Main Street as job creators and new small businesses are seeking to reinvest not only in their business and in their community, but for the opportunity to benefit workers in the United States of America.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is a direct and immediate boost for middle- income Americans who have been struggling--struggling for 8, now, 9 years--to get a handle on not only their ability to work with a broken tax system, but the ability to work with their own local businesses to make sure that their city succeeds, also.

It reduces the tax rate for low-income and middle-income Americans. It increases and extends the child tax credit to more families and, roughly, doubles the standard deduction. With this piece of legislation today, legislation for middle-income families will allow them to be a part of an economic growth model for years to come.

We are proud of what we are doing and delighted that we offer this not only to the United States House of Representatives today, but to the American people to see the Republican answer for economic growth and development vitality for the United States of America.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Luetkemeyer), who serves on the Financial Services Committee. Congressman Luetkemeyer, from St. Elizabeth, will talk about a piece of this bill that is from the Financial Services Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Mitchell).

Mr. Speaker, by the way, the gentlewoman would want to state that we are not taking this away. There will be a 1-year transition. So, I am sorry, but it will not be Ebenezer Scrooge at Christmas. It will be the bright lights of a big future that lies ahead for us.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kelly).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Byrne), a distinguished member of the Rules Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rodney Davis).

Mr. Speaker, I would like to, if I could, advise the gentlewoman that, to balance out the time, I am going to allow her to have the next couple of speakers so that we can equal the time.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton).

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Lawrenceville, Georgia (Mr. Woodall), the Rules Committee designee to the Budget Committee and the gentleman who sits with esteem on the Rules Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to advise the gentlewoman that we are through with our speakers, that I will be closing, so I ask that she go ahead and consume her time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from New York, the ranking member of the Rules Committee, and really each of the members of the Rules Committee for their diligence in working yesterday for a long period of time.

As the Rules Committee met last night, not only to consider this, but really to offer full and open debate, an opportunity was given for the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Neal) to come and speak representing the Democratic Party; the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Roskam), to come and represent the Ways and Means Committee; and the distinguished gentleman from The Woodlands, Texas (Mr. Brady), the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, to come and thoughtfully articulate not only the ideas behind this bill but what we are going to do.

Mr. Speaker, it is true that what we are doing is taking what was done by President Obama and a Democratic majority in the House and the Senate that raised taxes a trillion dollars, that, in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011, really raided the American people by raising taxes on them, by causing an economic downturn, a GDP rate of 1.2 percent--an assault on not just the taxpayer, but on the free enterprise system.

It is true that we promised this last election, through the election of Donald Trump, to Make America Great Again. Part of making America great again means making Americans great again also, making Americans not only proud of their country, but giving them an economic opportunity, and that is what the Republican Party is doing here.

We have heard not only from Mike Kelly, Congressman Kelly, who spoke about making America better, making the free enterprise system better, we heard from Congressman Woodall about being in 24th place, which is what America is, 24th in the world in doing business in a friendly environment.

We cannot survive in 24th place--24th place--by keeping the current Tax Code we have, where over and over and over we see not only companies moving to other locations within the United States of America, but moving offshore, stranding dollars, and jobs going with that.

What we are attempting to do in this bill is to make America number one, make America and the American worker number one again. We are going to make the big deal the big deal for people wherever you live in the United States. We are going to offer an opportunity for you to not only be taxed less, but that business that is in your city, your State that proudly they represent their hometown, they will have the opportunity to now be competitive.

Forget this, ``Oh, Republicans want to move jobs offshore.'' That is what we are sick and tired of hearing. We are sick and tired of hearing that jobs and investments go overseas.

They are coming back to America because this places America, instead of being the bottom wrung in terms of taxes, as the highest in the world. We are going to go to where we are the most competitive, where the American worker will stand a chance to stamp ``Made in America'' on those items that they want, made from my hometown, the pride of authorship of the middle class of this country, pride of authorship of knowing not just is my country going to get better, but my community and I will be better.

It is about financial responsibility, but it is also about the integrity of the free enterprise system. The free enterprise system is the greatest economic system in the history of the world. It will continue to produce great and better things for so many people.

But, Mr. Speaker, the Democratic Party tried to kill the free enterprise system when they came after the free enterprise system. We knew it and we saw it, and the world saw it, too. 1.2 percent GDP growth as opposed to, now, with a new viewpoint about making America great, we have not only doubled GDP, but we have added, net, 1 million jobs. If the summer had not produced the storms it had, no telling what our job growth would be.

This is what lies ahead, and this is what this Republican bill does. For that reason, I urge my colleagues to support this rule and the underlying bill on this conference report.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

Mr. Speaker, a bill that is done in the dark of night, in the midst of a crisis like the lack of Perkins funding for our students, the lack of funding for CHIP and for healthcare for millions of Americans--yet our friends on the other side go without shame in passing the GOP tax scam bill.

In the Houston Chronicle, they aptly put winners and losers, and they aptly put at the top of the winners The Trump Organization. This is a Christmas gift for the Trump family--no one else--with huge cuts to the uninsured, to commuters, and to homeowners in high-tax States. This is not a fair distribution of funds, and it certainly is going to impact those who are still suffering from hurricanes all over the Nation.

So I ask the question: Why the rush? Why the rush to give tax cuts to the top 1 percent, and increasing taxes on millions of middle class Americans, to pay for a permanent tax?

The American people have it right: a permanent tax cut for the rich. This is the worst catastrophic bill that has ever been passed by the Members of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives. It is a shame.

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

There are four reasons why I oppose this cruel and immoral $1.7 trillion tax giveaway to wealthy corporations:

1. The GOP tax scam raises taxes on tens of millions of middle class households and distributes the largest tax cuts to those in the top 1 percent causing $1.7 trillion to be added to the debt;

2. It eliminates or reduces tax benefits that directly benefit the middle class at every stage of life;

3. It results in 13 million fewer Americans with health insurance coverage; and

4. And it adds over $2 trillion dollars to deficit spending, which triggers statutory PAYGO's automatic spending cuts to mandatory programs such as Medicare, which along would see a $25 billion cut.

Instead of doing tax reform the Republicans have found new ways for the wealthy who use tax accountants and lawyers to further game the tax payer system by adding new loop holes that are only for the corporations and the wealthy.

Corporations receive a 14 percentage point reduction in their statutory tax rate, from 35 percent to 21 percent, the largest one-time rate reduction in U.S. history.

Republicans designed this tax scam to benefit the wealthiest in our country and now they are working as hard as possible to make sure Americans are too busy looking the other way to notice.

I have to tell them that it is too late, the American public sees what you are doing and they are not going to have any of it.

The Republican Tax Scam doubles the dollar amount at which the estate tax, currently affecting only the wealthiest 2 in 100 families.

It lifts the level at which the alternative minimum tax (AMT) would kick in, while dropping the top tax rate from the current 39.6 percent to 37 percent.

Mr. Speaker, where are the promises made to working Americans to give them a break.

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.

What people may not understand is they will not have to wait until 2027 to see the pain and misery that this tax cut will cause.

Congress has established mechanisms in rules that require pay-fors when budget deficit spending reaching astronomical levels, like what we have in this bill's wholesale giveaway of taxpayer money to Corporations and the wealth--it is called PAYGO.

The PAYGO compels new spending or tax changes not to add to the federal debt.

PAYGO requires that new spending must either be ``budget neutral'' or offset with cuts to existing programs.

So the Tax cut that corporations will be getting today, will cost the American workers dearly in next year when the Budget Committee must draft a budget that will have to slash domestic programs to pay for these cuts.

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.

Two weeks ago, nearly 8,000 of them took time out of their busy schedules to join me in a tele-town hall to discuss the tax scheme that has been rushed to the floor for a vote by the Republican leadership in the hope of passing it before the American people learn its insidious details.

My constituents understand and let me know that they believe it is important that the United States has a tax system that is fair, balanced, smart, and provides the resources and opportunities to allow all Americans to reach their potential.

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 $l00,000 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 20 percent 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 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.'