Floor Statements

Madam President, first, this morning, as everyone knows, there was an attempted terrorist attack in New York City, near the Port Authority bus terminal and very close to Times Square. I was about 15 blocks away when that happened. Thankfully, praise God, the attack was a failure, and the only serious injuries were sustained by the would-be perpetrator.

On mornings like this, I am even more thankful--and I am thankful all the time--for the service of the New York City Police Department, the Port Authority Police Department, the New York City Fire Department, and the bomb squad, that responded so quickly to the scene. Today was a startling reminder as to why the ``See Something, Say Something'' campaign is so crucial to keeping our city safe and why we must always, always, always be vigilant against the threat of terrorism.

Madam President, on judicial nominations, this evening, the Senate will vote on whether we should consider the nomination of Leonard Steven Grasz to be a judge on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. The nomination is significant because Grasz is just the third nominee since 1989 to be unanimously deemed ``not qualified'' by the American Bar Association. To underscore that fact, the ABA has reviewed over 1,700 judicial nominees since 1989. Before this administration, only two were ever unanimously deemed ``not qualified.'' Those two nominated by President Bush were not confirmed. The nominee we are voting on this evening is the third.

A panel of nonpartisan legal experts unanimously concluded that this man is not fit to be a judge. What else do my colleagues need to know? They should all vote no this evening.

Instead of withdrawing the nomination and finding someone better, which is what President Bush did in a similar

situation, some of my Republican colleagues have started attacking the

Mr. President, I first would like to talk today about year-end business.

Congressional negotiators are making good headway on a budget deal that would meet our commitments to our military and also our urgent priorities here at home. I hope this progress continues this week.

Unfortunately, the progress in Congress is in stark contrast to the rhetoric coming from the White House.

President Trump again suggested yesterday that a ``shutdown could happen.'' If a shutdown happens, as the President seemed to be rooting for in his tweet earlier this year, it will fall on his shoulders. His party controls the Senate, the House, and the Presidency.

Nobody here wants to see a shutdown. We Democrats are not interested in one. That is why we are working with our Republican colleagues in good faith to resolve all of the issues we have to solve before the end of the year, and it is in this spirit that Leader Pelosi and I will go to the White House this afternoon to discuss all of the issues before us.

It is no secret that one of the major sticking points--if not the major sticking point--in the negotiations is funding levels for programs that invest directly in economic growth and a social safety net for the middle class. Democrats are pushing for sorely needed funding to combat the opioid crisis, to shore up pension plans, to support veterans' health, to relieve student loan debt, and build rural infrastructure.

Without a budget agreement that lifts spending caps on both defense and economic development in a fair and equitable manner, programs I have mentioned, and so many others--medical research comes to mind-- could see their funding cut. Our veterans deserve better. People seeking recovery from opioid addiction deserve better. Hard-working pensioners deserve better. We must do both things--support the military and programs that create jobs and growth here at home--in equal measure. Both are very important.

I know there are some on the far right who say all the jobs programs and economic growth programs are unimportant, but most of us, Democrats and Republicans, believe both are important. The idea that both are important has been the basis of successful budget agreements going back several years, including the agreement we reached last April, where the military side and the domestic job, economic growth side were treated equally.

Unfortunately, it appears that the Freedom Caucus--a rather small bloc of hard-right House conservatives--is trying to derail another successful parity agreement. According to press reports, the Freedom Caucus is pushing for a very short-term extension of funding for jobs and economic development, while pushing for a long-term extension and a large increase for funding in defense. That is a ruse designed to slash funding for education, healthcare, infrastructure, and scientific research--all the things the Freedom Caucus, against the will of the overwhelming vast majority of Americans, doesn't want the government to fund.

Make no mistake, the Freedom Caucus is gearing up to hurt the middle class on the budget, just like so many Republicans way beyond the Freedom Caucus did with their tax bill--just like on the tax bill. We Democrats are going to defend the middle class because they need our help, too, and they have been forgotten by our Republican colleagues throughout the year, but this time, the Freedom Caucus's actions, if they had their way, could lead to a disaster. Speaker Ryan must stand up and tell the Freedom Caucus, no, they cannot be allowed to hold hostage productive bipartisan budget negotiations with outrageous demands that hurt the middle class. If Speaker Ryan lets them have their way, it will cause a shutdown. It will be on the Freedom Caucus' shoulders, Leader Ryan's shoulders, and the President's shoulders because such a bill could not pass either the House or the Senate--we are giving them fair warning right now--not right at the deadline.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Finally, Mr. President, let me say a word about the Dream Act. Earlier this week, my friend, the senior Senator from Illinois, came to the floor to update the Senate on the progress he is making in his negotiations with Senate Republicans on an agreement that would provide a significant investment in border security in exchange for the Dream Act.

As I have said in the past, Democrats support real border security. We will be happy to join with Republicans to pass legislation to secure our border in exchange for the Dream Act. Those talks continue to make good progress. I hope we can reach an agreement soon.

Now, Mr. President, a word on the special counsel. Over the past few weeks, I have continued to hear Republican lawmakers and partisan media hosts attack the integrity of Special Counsel Mueller in a shameful display meant to undermine his investigation into the connections between the Trump campaign and Russia. Spuriously attacking Robert Mueller, one of the most respected and trusted civil servants in our country, is the surest route to losing all credibility.

I remind everyone on the right who are trying to muddy the waters on the Mueller investigation that Robert Mueller was a career prosecutor who has served both Republican and Democratic administrations in the most trusted of roles. He was appointed by President Trump's own Deputy Attorney General. It defies credulity to lambaste him as partisan or biased. He is as straight a shooter as they come. This is bigger than one man. The attacks on Special Counsel Mueller and his investigation erode faith in the rule of law, that bedrock principle at the heart of our civic life.

If independent investigations into matters as grave as foreign interference in our elections succumb to intimidation and partisan slander, we will be no better than a third-world country. Rule of law will be gone, at least for the President of the United States, which is something Americans have treasured for centuries. What has always defined American democracy is an unyielding faith in the rule of law-- its power to check our people, as well as our Presidents. Special Counsel Mueller is the rule of law at work in our 21st century American democracy. Intentionally and spuriously impugning his integrity--not because he has done anything wrong but because they don't like what he is doing; very partisan, very biased, very one-sided is their view--is not only inaccurate but damaging to a core ideal in our country--the independent and impartial rule of law. We must loudly reject the strident voices who engage in these attacks on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Finally, Mr. President, on the issue of taxes, with the passage of the Republican Senate bill last Friday, the Republican Party has shrugged off its history as the party of tax cuts and become the party of tax hikes on the middle class. The Republican tax bill will end up raising taxes on millions of middle-class families to pay for corporate welfare.

As our Republican colleagues march us toward an enormous corporate tax cut, we have seen numerous companies start to announce plans to buy back more of their stock--not build factories, not create jobs, but to buy back their stock, which, of course, benefits the CEOs because the stock price goes up.

T-Mobile has announced $1.5 billion in stock buybacks; Mastercard, $4 billion; Bank of America, $5 billion. Just this morning, three or more companies announced hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of buybacks. These companies, I would say to President Trump and I would say to my Republican colleagues, are not announcing new investments in their workforce or wage increases, as Republicans promised they would. They are announcing stock repurchasing programs that benefit their wealthy investors.

The tax bill will also saddle the next generation of leaders with larger deficits and debts, limiting our ability to make the kinds of investments we need to be making in education, infrastructure, and scientific research--a far surer path to good-paying jobs and raising wages than giving corporate America, already flush with cash, even more stock buybacks. For the same reason, those increased deficits, Republicans are now coming back and saying that they want to slash Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, making it even harder in America to access affordable healthcare and retire with dignity.

Speaker Ryan admitted it yesterday. He said: ``We're going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and

the deficit,'' and he specifically mentioned Medicare. They first create the deficit by these huge tax cuts for the wealthiest corporations and individuals, and then they take it out on the middle class by saying: We have no choice but to cut Medicare. What is the matter? I hope the American people will see this. I hope some of the news channels and radio commentators will note this, since those are the people who listen to them.

By the way, that is only what we know about the bill. It was muscled through the Chamber with such reckless haste, we are finding errors and consequences every day. In yesterday's POLITICO, Greg Jenner, a former top tax official in Bush's Treasury Department who helped write the 1986 tax reform bill, was quoted as saying:

The more you read [of the Republican tax bill], the more

you go, ``Holy crap, what's this?'' We will be dealing with

unintended consequences for months to come because the bill

is moving too fast.

That is a Republican, a former tax official from President Bush's Treasury Department.

When we were debating the Affordable Care Act--a process that took over a year--the esteemed majority leader admonished: We need to slow down and get this right.

The tax bill, by comparison, spent hardly 2 weeks in the House and 3 weeks in the Senate, and it is a lot worse for the average middle-class person. I would say the same thing to the majority leader that he said to us: Slow down and get this right. There is no need to rush this hastily considered, highly complex, hugely consequential tax bill before some artificial deadline.

We have a responsibility to get this right for the American people, particularly the American middle class. I still believe the way to do it is through an open, transparent, and bipartisan debate.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, even as my Republican friends move to reconcile their two tax bills in a conference committee, their problems are far from over.

At the heart of their bill is a toxically unpopular idea--giant tax breaks on big corporations and the very wealthy, paid for by cutting care and raising taxes on millions of middle-class families. The new Republican Party is the party of tax hikes on the middle class to subsidize corporate welfare. That menacing idea at the core of its bill is a problem that, like Hydra, spouts many heads.

Slashing the State and local deduction remains a massive problem for House Republicans from suburban districts like Virginia, New York, Illinois, Washington, and, of course, California. Multiple analyses have shown that, despite the so-called compromise that allows families to deduct up to $10,000 in property taxes, the pain inflicted on suburban families will not be much mitigated. States like California and

New York will still experience an exodus of taxpayers, which will drain local resources and impact services. For those House Republicans, voting for the conference report is a poisonous vote, substantively and politically, not to mention that home values will fall in those districts of those House Republicans. If they are voting to decrease home values by 10 or 8 percent for every homeowner in their districts, that is political suicide. Why would they do it? That is what will happen, and the homeowners will start seeing that right away.

Another problem: The last-minute inclusion of a corporate AMT has Republicans and corporate leaders scrambling to figure out if it will have the unintended consequence of functionally eliminating the value of the R&D tax credit. Remember, the corporate AMT was added at the last minute because Republicans needed more revenue to offset a generous rate on passthroughs.

That is what Republicans were working on in the waning hours of last week, not trying to figure out how we could help middle-class families with kids in college, with kids who have serious medical expenses, and not reducing the impact that it would have on our deficit. Oh, no. They were busy figuring out how to make tax cuts for the wealthy even more generous as 70 percent of our passthrough income already flows to the top 1 percent, not the top 20 percent, not the top 10 percent--the top 1 percent. There is 70 percent of passthrough income that goes to the top 1 percent of earners. The Republican tax bill already slashed the rate on passthroughs, but several Republican Senators withheld their votes until that loophole was widened further.

I understand that they wanted to help smaller businesses, but take the time and figure out how to help the small businesses without helping the hedge funds, corporate law firms, the big lobbying firms, and other wealthy individuals. Take the time to figure it out--but no. In the rush to get a crumb for small business owners, they are giving a whole, big, nice chocolate layer cake to the wealthy. It is wrong, very wrong.

The inclusion of the corporate AMT is another reminder that Republicans cannot have it both ways. You cannot cut every conceivable tax on big corporations and the wealthy without blowing up the deficit. If Republicans are forced to go back and look at the corporate AMT, they will have to find revenue elsewhere. Will they slightly lessen another corporate tax break or will they ask working Americans to pay more, which they have done in previous iterations on this bill?

Yesterday, we learned the Republican leadership circulated talking points that questioned the legitimacy of the Joint Committee on Taxation--the nonpartisan, independent scorekeepers of tax legislation. Rather than confront the awful truth that their bill will not pay for itself as it, instead, costs about $1 trillion even with dynamic growth estimates, the Republican leadership asked its Members to shoot the messenger. The JCT, which is widely respected and always accepted by both parties, is, all of a sudden, a pariah in Republican circles because it told the truth--that this bill would not cause the growth they projected, that this bill will increase the deficit far more than the Republicans had hoped.

The Republican leadership tried to discredit the nonpartisan umpire it had long praised and had appointed. What a disgrace. It brings up that what has happened in the last week or two here has been one of the most disgraceful episodes in the history of the Senate--a major bill done behind closed doors, rushed through. Then, adding insult to injury, the truthtellers--the independent, appointed-by-Republican monitors--were discredited because our Republican colleagues didn't like hearing the answer.

There is still time to avert this awful bill. If my Republican friends vote no on the conference bill, we can do a bipartisan tax reform bill. We can pursue a much better process and get a much better product and go so far as to heal a Senate that has been wounded by partisanship and strife, greatly aggravated by the majority's actions on this tax bill.

Mr. President, instead of rushing a bad tax bill through the conference, the Senate should focus on the bevy of year-end issues confronting us. First and foremost, we must reach a spending bill that would have us meet our commitments to support the military and also urgent priorities here at home, such as combating the opioid crisis, shoring up pension plans, supporting veterans' healthcare, relieving student loan debt, and building rural infrastructure.

In previous budget agreements, Democrats have always strived to achieve parity between our investments in defense and jobs and economic development here at home. It has continually been a sticking point with Republicans as we go through these negotiations. They want to increase the spending for defense, the military, but shortchange important domestic programs such as infrastructure, education, scientific research--measures that create jobs and help the middle class. We Democrats support an increase for our military, but we want to make sure other crucial programs don't get left behind. So we will fight just as hard in this budget agreement to ensure that for each dollar we add for defense, a dollar is added for domestic economic development, 50-50.

We care about our soldiers. They are the greatest. They are risking their lives for us, but we also care about a pensioner who spent his whole life working in the steel mills, working driving a truck, working building buildings. They religiously put money away every month so they would have something when they retire, and if it is not there--they are important too.

General Mattis came to see me and told me how badly our Defense Department needs help. I agree, but I told him to go back to the White House and tell the White House the domestic side of the ledger needs help as well. Spending on the domestic side of the ledger is lower than it was in 2010, despite increased costs.

We also need to provide funding for Community Health Centers, the Children's Health Insurance Program, relief for millions of Americans still recovering from national disasters, and we must come together on a bipartisan bill to support the Dream Act along with tougher border security measures. So it is a lengthy to-do list. It will require hard work, steady cooperation, and compromise on both sides.

Last night, however, there was a concerning spectacle on the House floor. The freedom caucus held up an unrelated vote on the tax bill-- who could figure--because they were unsatisfied with the Republican leadership's plan to keep the government open. If we are going to solve all the problems that confront us before the end of the year, House leaders cannot let the Freedom Caucus--a small band of hard-right reactionary conservatives--run the show. If they cooperate with Democrats, they can accomplish something. To just let the Freedom Caucus dictate is a recipe for chaos.

Once again, negotiations broke off because we were at an impasse on the 50-50 parity for defense and nondefense. That has been very important to Democrats for years. We have settled our budget agreements, our spending policy, omnibus agreements always with 50-50, and we believe it is still important today--parity, parity, parity.

As we continue to negotiate with our Republican counterparts, we hope the Republican leadership can avert more of this unnecessary hostage- taking like we saw on the House floor last night that can only impede a serious, ongoing bipartisan negotiation.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Madam President, in the early hours of Saturday morning, under the cover of darkness, the Republican majority rushed through one of the worst, most hastily considered pieces of major legislation I have seen in my time in the Senate.

The bill will cause one of the greatest transfers of wealth to corporate America and the already wealthy, while working America picks up the tab. Millions of middle-class families will pay higher taxes under the Republican plan in only a few short years. Because the bill is unpaid for, the deficit will skyrocket, cannibalizing resources for education, scientific research, infrastructure, and our military, endangering Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

As I said last week, I have not seen a more regressive piece of legislation so devoid of a rationale, so ill suited for the condition of the country, so removed from the reality of what the American people need.

The text of the bill itself was released in the early evening, only several hours before a final vote took place. Lobbyists had a chance to read and change the bill before Members of the U.S. Senate. When we received the bill, there were sections of text handwritten in the margins concerning some of the most complex tax provisions. The Joint Committee on Taxation was not even able to produce an analysis of the bill until after the final vote took place at around 2 or 3 in the morning.

Amid such haste, the Republican majority likely made drafting errors and inclusions that will have unintended consequences, even severe ones. Amid such secrecy, such cloak-and-dagger legislating, the majority slipped in several additional goodies for big corporations and the very wealthy that are already being uncovered. I am sure even more will come to light in the coming days.

The appalling process we all witnessed led Bloomberg News--a middle- of-the-road, business-oriented publication--to write the following in an editorial today:

In their rush to pass something, anything, that they can

call ``tax reform,'' congressional Republicans have achieved

the impossible: They have made an awful plan even worse. The

end result is sheer absurdity: a reform that actually

complicates the tax code further, and that must contradict

itself and partially self-destruct to attain some semblance

of the fiscal discipline Republicans claim to value. It's

hard to imagine a more egregious waste of time and energy, or

a worse outcome for taxpayers and the broader economy.

That is Bloomberg News, not some leftwing publication. It is a business publication. If they can say that, imagine what average Americans are saying. What a condemnation from a publication that would be inclined to favor tax reform. In short, my Republican friends ought to be ashamed of the process and the product that emerged from the Senate last week.

As the two Houses of Congress prepare to go to conference, I suggest that my Republican colleagues reconsider their efforts and think again on how much better of a product we could produce through a bipartisan, open, and transparent process. Regardless, with so much left to do before the end of the year, the Republicans should not be devoting their energies toward the conference on tax reform because this bill, in both the House and Senate, needs dramatic repair.

Madam President, before I address the issue of taxes, let me address the matter of the government funding bill.

We are now only a week away from a government shutdown, which, to remind my colleagues, could cost our economy thousands of jobs and billions of dollars, as it did in 2013. I think a government shutdown is something we all desperately want to avoid, Democrats and Republicans--I talked to some of my colleagues this morning--with the exception, it seems, of the President.

This morning's Washington Post reports that President Trump has told his confidantes that a government shutdown could be good for him politically and that he has asked friends about how a shutdown would affect him politically. It is disappointing but maybe not surprising that President Trump appears to be putting politics before the well- being of the American people. As President, the welfare of the American people should always come first--always.

We have a lot of things to accomplish by the end of the year, and a government spending deal is particularly important for our men and women in uniform, as well as a host of programs that create jobs and boost the economy.

The President talks about defending the troops and then threatens a shutdown. It is a contradiction--a contradiction--and I am sure our generals would tell him that even playing around with the possibility of sequester and shutting down the government is no good for our armed services, as well as for the rest of the country.

We should all be focused on avoiding a government shutdown. Certainly Democrats will be working with our Republican colleagues in Congress to that end. I think our Republican colleagues agree. I hope they won't succumb to President Trump's whim based on a political decision and not on what is good for America. President Trump must change his tune--and soon--if he wants to be a constructive partner in those discussions rather than the focal point of blame.

Madam President, on taxes, my Republican friends have stretched into day 2 of their debate on the bill, which still lacks resolution on some critical issues.

After promising over the past few months that their tax bill would pay for itself through economic growth, the Joint Committee on Taxation came out with a report yesterday that showed that these promises were unfounded, way off the mark. Even considering economic growth, the Republican tax bill will add roughly $1 trillion to the deficit. And many economists have said

that this dynamic scoring doesn't work at all. Here, the JCT gave credence to the theory of dynamic scoring but then came out with a number that was not the kind of wild exaggerations we are hearing from the Secretary of the Treasury, from the President, and from some of our Republican colleagues, particularly those of the Club for Growth bent.

Earlier in this debate, Republicans claimed that this would be a tax cut for everybody and that nobody in the middle class is going to get a tax increase. Independent analyses show that these claims were not valid, and to their credit, some Republicans corrected the record.

Now Republicans have gotten the ``dynamic scoring'' they have demanded for years. They are in charge. They put dynamic scoring in place. It is still not good enough. As recently as this week, the Republican leader and others claimed that this bill would not add to the deficit. We know now that even under the dynamic scoring method the Republican Party asked for and received, this bill would add $1 trillion to the deficit. All of the claims that tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations will pay for themselves were not correct. It is time for my Republican friends to admit the error and come clean with the American people.

The fact that we received the dynamic score only a day before a final vote on the bill shows just how foolhardy it is to rush a bill like this through.

From press reports, we know that the Republicans are making the passthrough provisions more generous, widening what was already a gargantuan tax loophole for wealthy business owners. Why should wealthy business owners pay a significantly lower rate on their personal income, because they are paying no corporate tax if they use the passthrough, than the average American? That is what this bill does. Hedge funds, big fancy law firms, and lobbyist firms would all get a lower rate than the average American because of the passthrough. The average American who makes $100,000, $200,000 is already paying in the 30-percent range.

From press reports--you would think that maybe Republicans would be concerned by the many reports that their bill increases taxes on 60 percent of middle-class families by the end of the day. No. Instead, the holdout Republicans are concerned that this bill isn't generous enough to corporations and wealthy business owners. So now the Republican leadership is working to fix that. In the waning hours, this bill is tilting even further toward business, even further away from families. Every time the choice is between big corporations and families, the Republicans choose the big corporations.

And still no one knows what the final bill will look like. Why on Earth wouldn't you want to spend more than a few hours looking at a bill of this magnitude? What might have been snuck in? What might have been changed by mistake--an innocent mistake? There are so many reasons to not rush this bill through, but we know why it is being done. We know why Republican Members will only have a few hours at most to read the draft legislation before voting on it.

Notching a political win, I would say to my colleagues, isn't a good enough reason to throw common sense and legislative responsibility out the window. Notching a political win isn't a good enough reason to raise taxes and premiums on millions of middle-classes families when there is a much better bill to be had by working in a bipartisan way, Democrats and Republicans, across the aisle, together. My Republican friends must know that ``we needed to notch a political win'' isn't a good enough excuse for a constituent who asks why you voted to raise their taxes but slash them for big corporations.

Today may be the first day of the new Republican Party--one that raises taxes on the middle class. The one thing Republicans always promised the middle class is, we are not going to raise your taxes. A good number of my colleagues from the other side of the aisle--the junior Senator from Texas--I heard him talk about it--said he doesn't want to raise taxes on any middle-class person, but this bill does it.

The Republican Party is abandoning its long-held principles to please its political pay masters. It is a bad move for the Republicans, as well as a bad move for America.

Again, ``we needed to notch a political win'' is going to be no excuse when your constituents complain that they are getting the short end of the stick in this tax bill and wealthy corporations, the richest people, are not.

Democrats remain united against any middle-class tax increase, and we will fight to reverse that. The stakes are too high. Our economy is already stacked against working men and women. Corporate profits and stocks have reached alltime highs. The top 1 percent capture 20 percent of the national income--higher than at any time in our history since the roaring twenties.

Meanwhile, for too many Americans, the American dream is slipping away. Hard-working Americans who get up every morning worried about paying the bills, making the mortgage payment, the tuition payment, the healthcare bill, are not getting the help they need in this bill. Instead, it is going to the wealthiest, biggest corporations on a theory of trickle-down, which almost everyone accepts and rightwing economists agree has never made sense.

Any moral tax bill would focus on giving a leg up to middle-class Americans, to working class Americans. Instead, this bill directs the lion's share of its benefits to those at the very top--the already wealthy, the already powerful. It makes healthcare less affordable and less accessible. It will deprive the government of the resources needed to support the military, scientific research, education, and infrastructure.

The hole it blows in the deficit will--make no mistake--endanger Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Republicans, including President Trump, have openly admitted that they will seek changes in this program after the tax bill. Senator Sanders has outlined eloquently how dangerous this bill is to the future of Social Security and Medicare. I know our Republican colleagues who came down to argue against him were all on the defensive.

All the things our President and Republicans say they wanted to do are not happening. And this bill moves in the opposite direction--not only on helping the wealthy and not helping the middle class in the way it needs to but also in endangering Social Security and Medicare. Most insidious of all, the bill hides a ticking time bomb of middle-class tax hikes at the center of our Tax Code. Who would want to vote for that?

Many of my Republican friends feel that the hard right--big, wealthy corporate interests--will put these ads on TV saying that this bill helps the middle class. It is not going to work. When the middle class gets a tax increase, they are going to know why, and they are going to know whom to blame, and these ads will have faded into the air.

Today, my Republican friends can choose to cement their party as the party that raises taxes on the middle class. It will be a dramatic turning point in a downward spiral for the Republicans and something they have never believed in before. But Republicans have an alternative. They can step back from the brink and work with Democrats on a bipartisan tax reform bill to deliver across-the-board tax relief to the middle class, a bill that makes our businesses more competitive while closing egregious corporate loopholes and that grows our economy without adding a penny to the deficit.

Bipartisan tax reform--not this cynical bill, not this partisan exercise, not this bill that seems to please the 1 percent but not the rest of America--is possible but only if my friends and colleagues will abandon this bill and reach out for a better kind of politics.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, in just a short time, we will proceed to a final vote on the Republican tax bill. We understand they have the votes to pass their bill, despite a process and a product that no one can be proud of, and everyone should be ashamed of. Historians will mark today as one of the darkest black-letter days in the long history of this Senate.

Once hailed as the greatest deliberative body, as a beacon of American democracy, and the envy of representative governments around the world, the Senate seems to have abandoned those qualities in a rush to pass a bill that no one is proud of. Substantively, the Republicans have managed to take a bad bill and make it worse. It was chockful of special interest giveaways before tonight, but now, under the cover of darkness and with the aid of haste, a flurry of last-minute changes will stuff even more money into the pockets of the wealthy and the biggest corporations while raising taxes on millions in the middle class.

One provision may be a metaphor for the whole bill. One college, Hillsdale College, has been exempted from taxes on colleges with large endowments. Hillsdale College is supported by the DeVos family, one of the largest contributors to the Republican Party. A specific provision, just like an earmark, was slipped into the bill, added by a Senator who fought to remove earmarks from Congress several years ago. A single wealthy college--the pet project of a billionaire campaign contributor to the Republican Party--was exempted from a tax by a Senator who fought to get rid of earmarks. This, unfortunately, is the metaphor for this bill and how high the stench is rising in this Chamber as we debate the bill tonight.

In my long career in politics, I have not seen a more regressive piece of legislation so devoid of rationale, so ill-suited for the conditions of the country, so removed from the reality of what the American people need. Working people in this country are struggling. Corporations and the very wealthy are doing great.

There is no reason for rushing through a tax break for millionaires and billionaires, paid for by pilfering the pockets and the healthcare of middle-class Americans. Millions of middle-class families will get a tax hike next year and millions more thereafter because of this bill. That is why this bill is such a monstrosity, such a danger to the country, and the American people know it. That is why they oppose the bill in large majorities.

My Republican friends will ultimately pay consequences for this bill in 2018 and beyond. The Republican Party will never again be the party of tax cuts for middle-class people. With the passage of this tax bill today, it will be the first day of the new Republican Party--one that raises taxes on the middle class, abandoning its principles for its political paymasters.

With respect to the process, the bill my Republican friends hope to pass so soon was received by Members of this body only a few hours ago. Not a single Member of this Chamber has read the bill. It would be impossible. Some of the pages were completely crossed off, and text had been replaced by handwritten notes. When we got the bill, this is what it looked like. This is what it looked like.

When asked before by Senator Durbin, the Senate clerk said she couldn't even read it, and this section is one of the most complicated sections of the bill, dealing with passthroughs. Lawyers are paid thousands of dollars an hour to find ways for their wealthy patrons to avoid sections just like this, and my Republican friends don't have the decency, the honor to let us debate it.

Senator McCaskill was the first to discover that a list of proposed amendments was circulating among lobbyists. My Republican friends allowed lobbyists to see amendments, and likely the text of this bill, before their fellow U.S. Senators.

There is no score of this bill by the Joint Committee on Taxation. There will be no analysis of how American businesses and taxpayers fare under this bill, how high taxes go up or go down, whether the economy grows or shrinks, whether it creates jobs or loses them. Who knows? Certainly no one here. No one could know because it hasn't even been read, let alone thoughtfully considered.

I remember a few years back when my Republican colleagues gleefully scolded us to ``read the bill'' because the Affordable Care Act was a lengthy piece of legislation, and that bill was available for days before anyone had to vote on it. With this stunning deception, with this reckless ramrodding of a bill, Republicans are reaching heretofore unreached heights of hypocrisy,

and the Senate is descending to a new low of chicanery.

Read the bill? They are still writing it by hand, mere hours before voting on it. Is this really how Republicans are going to rewrite the Tax Code, scrawled like something on the back of a napkin behind closed doors with the help of K Street lobbyists? If that is not a recipe for swindling the middle class and loosening loopholes for the wealthy, I don't know what is. I don't know if it is possible for a Senate majority leader to depart further from responsible legislating than the process we witnessed with this tax bill.

Tonight, Mr. President, I feel mostly regret at what could have been. What a grave shame it is that we weren't able to work together on this bill. Tax reform is an issue that is ripe for bipartisan compromise. Democrats have spent many long hours with our Republican colleagues talking about our tax reform ideas. There is a sincere desire on this side of the aisle to work with our colleagues, particularly on tax reform, but we have been rebuffed time and time again. Even under these difficult circumstances, Senators Coons, Warner, Bennet, Manchin, Heitkamp, Donnelly, and McCaskill have tried in good faith to convince our Republican colleagues to sit down and talk to us. We have tried to convince you all that we want to join you in tax reform, to have a real debate befitting this august body.

It is an expression of the brokenness of our politics that the influence of moneyed interests and the political right was so great that it overcame even the best of intentions of my Republican colleagues, so many of whom I admire, so many of whom I know, because they have said it to me, lament the steady erosion of bipartisanship in the one institution in our government designed by nature to foster it.

I salute my friend the Senator from Tennessee for standing fast by his principles and having the courage of his convictions. I only regret that there were not more who followed his admirable example.

After a divisive and draining battle over the future of healthcare, we could have moved the Senate back toward sanity, bipartisanship, compromise. We could have accomplished something great for the country and for this body at the same time.

Although time is running short, there is still time, and I will make one final plea. Because this bill is so slanted toward the wealthy and powerful and rains tax increases upon millions of middle-class citizens; because the bill is laden with special interest provisions, some recently found and many not yet seen; because the bill was given to lobbyists to read and change before Senators saw it; and because the bill was given to us on few hours' notice and has not been read fully or considered fully by a single Senator, I move that we adjourn until Monday so we can first read and then clean up this awful piece of legislation.

Motion to Adjourn

Mr. President, I move that the Senate adjourn until Monday, December 4, 2017, at 12 noon, and I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that he be given a minute.

Mr. President, I yield back.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, later tonight or in the early hours of tomorrow morning, we will vote on final passage of the Republican tax bill. I would like to make two main points about the Republican tax bill in my speech this morning, first on process and second on substance.

From the beginning, the Republican tax bill has made a mockery of the legislative process. Republican leaders disappeared behind closed doors and negotiated a framework for a tax bill without a shred of Democratic input. Then Republican leaders wrote a bill, behind closed doors, without a shred of Democratic input. Republicans brought that bill through a markup in the Finance Committee, where it underwent the scrutiny of one--I repeat, one--expert witness. That is it. Finance Committee Democrats offered 60 amendments to the bill, but Republicans rejected every single one. The Republicans on the committee made it crystal clear that they were not interested in bipartisanship.

Now that bill is before us on the floor. Even further, significant changes will likely be made by the majority leader today. We will get huge changes in a bill today and try to vote on it tonight. This is tax--one of the most complicated issues before us. These changes, and the way the majority leader is handling this, make it impossible for any independent analyst to get a good look at the bill and how it would impact our country.

From the one-sidedness with which it was drafted to the reckless haste with which it was considered, the Republican tax bill has failed to go through anything resembling the normal legislative process.

Before the night is out, I hope my Republican friends will ask themselves if this is the way they want history to remember how the first major tax bill was passed in over 30 years. I hope they will ask themselves if this process has lived up to the fine traditions of this body, as they were so eloquently described by my friends, the Senators from Arizona, both senior and junior.

The American people are clamoring for us to work together. They believe our politics is broken. They think our politics is starved of commonsense and compromise--and it is. The way this tax bill is being rammed through is exactly why the American people believe our politics is so broken.

Now let me address the substance of the bill. Without exaggeration, I believe that if this bill passes, it will be remembered as one of the worst pieces of public policy in decades. A vote for passage will be a vote my Republican friends will regret.

At a time of immense inequality, the Republican tax bill makes life easier on the well-off and eventually makes life more difficult on working Americans, exacerbating one of the most pressing problems we face as a nation--the yawning gap between the rich and everyone else.

Corporations enjoying record profits get a massive permanent tax break while over 60 percent of the middle class will end up paying higher taxes because their benefits expire. Healthcare premiums will go up 10 percent, and 13 million fewer Americans will end up having health insurance as a result of repealing the individual mandate. The CBO said yesterday that even if we pass the Murray-Alexander bill into law, it would have little or no impact on either of those two things.

When it is all said and done, the tax bill would balloon the deficit by at least $1.5 trillion, adding to the debt burden borne by the next generation and diminishing our ability to support the military and invest in our schools, our roads, and in scientific research. Let me just repeat that. The increased deficits caused by this bill will cannibalize support from everything we know is essential to economic growth and a strong middle class, including support for our men and women in uniform.

Ultimately, this deficit-busting tax cut will endanger Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, as my friend, the Republican Senator from Florida, admitted yesterday when he said higher deficits will mean ``instituting changes to Social Security and Medicare for the future.''

So a win today for the GOP will be a very temporary one. It would be enjoyed almost exclusively in the political media that measures who is up today and down tomorrow but fails to grasp the bigger picture.

It will not be a long-term win politically. Recent polling has shown this tax bill is less popular than previous tax hikes. Let me say that again. Recent polling has shown that this tax bill is less popular than previous tax hikes, but, more importantly, it will not win out in the country. It will not be a win for 13 million middle-class families who pay higher taxes in 2019, or the 87 million middle-class families who pay higher taxes in 2027. It will not be a win for the single mom in the suburbs who no longer is able to deduct State and local taxes and will find it that much harder to send her daughter to college. It will not be a win for the 13 million Americans who go without health insurance and everyone else who will face 10 percent higher premiums next year.

Those hard-working Americans have waited years for their Congress to pass legislation to make things just a bit easier on them. They have watched an economy that for decades rewarded hard work and fair play turn against them, producing more wealth for the already wealthy but less pay and less work for workers.

For so many, this rigged economy that benefits too few and leaves too many behind is a source of frustration, anger, and despair. Donald Trump, in his campaign for the Presidency, spoke to that anger, and yet his tax bill--the Republican tax bill--is a betrayal of the working men and women who feel that anger and would make worse all of the problems that led to it in the first place. We can do a better job on tax reform, but only if we work together.

The way this Congress has careened from partisan bill to partisan bill, with no attempt even made at bipartisanship, has brought shame on this body and reinforced the skepticism that so many Americans have about our politics.

Today my Republican friends have an opportunity to turn back from this partisan bill and this partisan process. If they do, I guarantee they will find a Democratic leader, a Democratic Senate caucus, and a Democratic Party that is eager to work with them on the kind of tax reform our country deserves.

We will not sit in our corner and make unreasonable demands. As many of my colleagues know, there is a lot of sincere intent on this side of the aisle to do tax reform. I have worked with Senator Hatch, and I have worked with Senator Portman. Many others of my caucus have worked with Republicans on tax reform ideas for years. We can certainly put together a bill acceptable to both parties that reduces burdens on the middle class, makes our economy more competitive, and creates jobs here at home, and do it in a deficit neutral way. The bill doesn't do those things, but we can write a bill that does--together.

I say: Let's give it a shot. If my Republican friends close the door on their partisan tax bill tonight, they will find

an open door for bipartisan tax reform tomorrow.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, first, before I get to my main issue of taxes, I just heard the majority leader talk about taking away the blue slip. We hear the other side professing they want to work in a bipartisan way, but every step they take takes away bipartisanship. Reconciliation takes away bipartisanship. Getting rid of the blue ship takes away bipartisanship. Unfortunately, the majority leader has taken many steps this year to remove any hint of bipartisanship--most notably, reconciliation on this major tax bill.

This is the first time we are doing tax reform in 36 years, but then, it was done in a bipartisan way. The product lasted, and people, in retrospect, were proud of it. Because this bill is being done in such a partisan and narrow way and the idea--I even heard my friend from Utah say this: Join us. You don't put together a bill in the dark of night with just Republicans and then say: Come join us. That is not how tax reform was done in 1986. That is not how major, bipartisan efforts in this body have ever been done. It is a group from both parties sitting down and coming up with a plan. And to offer amendments and then to have them all defeated or ruled out of order and then say that is regular order? Who are we kidding? Who are we kidding?

This has been a very partisan bill. That is why it is not a great product. That is why the other side is rushing it through. This is not a proud day for this Chamber, and history will show that. History will show that.

Now I would like to talk about the specific plan, although we are still not sure what the plan will be. According to reports, Republicans are, right now, furiously debating changes in the bill, and who knows when they will put the bill on the floor. A bill like this deserves weeks of debate on the floor. At most, we will get 20 hours of debate-- and maybe not that--depending on when the leader puts the new substitute bill on the floor. That is so wrong. That is so against the better angels of this Chamber and the history we have had for centuries. It is against the best practices that my dear friend from Utah, the chairman of the Finance Committee, has exhibited throughout his career. So I hope we can, even at this late moment, change that.

But we are only 1 day away, unfortunately, from a final vote on the bill to rewrite the entire U.S. Tax Code, and significant parts of the Republican bill

are still up in the air. By the time we vote, no one will have a definitive analysis of how the bill would impact the economy--no one. No one will know how the last-minute provisions Republicans add will affect American taxpayers and businesses.

If this bill should pass--and I sure hope it doesn't, for the sake of America and for the sake of the middle class--my Republican friends will regret rushing it through in such a brazen way. There will be unintended consequences. The rush to get something--anything--done will haunt my Republican colleagues in years to come and, I dare say, in November of 2018.

I would understand the rush if the Republicans were sure they had a great tax bill, but they are not sure. I know so many of my colleagues have expressed real misgivings about this bill. They say that it is better than nothing, but that is not the alternative. It is not either this bill or nothing. We Democrats are ready to sit down and work on a bipartisan bill--it will take a couple of months--and come up with a much better plan that will get 70 or 80 votes on the floor of this Chamber, of which we can all be proud.

Every independent analysis has shown that millions of middle-class people will get an increase in taxes. The Tax Policy Center estimates that 60 percent of middle-class families will see a tax increase at the end of the day, while folks making over $1 million will get an average cut of $40,000. Do millionaires need a tax cut at all? Are they doing so poorly? Is there any study that shows this kind of tax cut will make them work harder or create more jobs? No. No. None. So the individual side here, which reduces the top rate by 1 percent, if that is still in the bill they are going to put before us, is misguided.

Corporations will get permanent breaks while individuals' will expire after only a few years. For estates, right now the only estates that pay any tax are worth over $11 million, and they will get a tax break while 13 million fewer Americans--middle income, low income--will get health insurance. Why rush to pass a bill like that?

It is no wonder the bill is so unpopular with the American people. In every survey that I have seen and in every State survey that I have seen, the numbers who dislike the bill exceed--in most cases, by a lot--those who like the bill, just like healthcare.

Now, corporate profits are at an all-time high. Companies are flush with cash. The richest 1 percent of Americans receive 20 percent of the overall national income. The richest 1 percent get 20 percent of the income. God bless them. I don't like that percentage, and that percentage hasn't been matched in nearly a century since the roaring twenties. But do they need a tax break? Come on.

Corporations and the wealthy are doing great right now. God bless them. They don't need a tax cut. To lavish them with huge tax breaks and ask the middle class to bear so much of the cost--that gets it backward. That is not a bill anyone in this Chamber can be proud of, whether your views are for tax cuts or not.

The main argument my Republican colleagues use to counter these damning facts--what I say is the core argument of their tax plan--is that a massive corporate tax cut would grow the economy and make it easier for companies to invest in their workers. The argument that a massive corporate tax cut leads to more jobs and higher wages is a flimsy house of cards that falls down under the slightest scrutiny.

Just yesterday, Bloomberg published an article citing the CEOs of major companies like Cisco and Coca-Cola, who said, according to the report, that ``they'll turn over most gains from the proposed corporate tax cuts to their shareholders, undercutting the President's promise that his plan will create jobs and raise wages for the middle class.''

We have seen similar quotes by major corporate leaders on earnings calls over the past several months. They admitted that this big corporate tax break will go, in large part, to stock buybacks, dividends, which we all know go to the wealthiest people in America. The preponderance of it goes to the wealthiest people in America. The additional profits from corporate tax cuts will not go to new investments or higher wages but to CEO bonuses, stock buybacks, and dividends.

Perhaps the most compelling testimony was given to top White House economic adviser Gary Cohn himself, who spoke at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council earlier this year. The gathering of business leaders was asked to raise their hands if they planned to invest the money they got from corporate tax cuts into their companies.

Gary Cohn had to ask: Why aren't there more hands up?

Again, you say: Well, they were afraid to say so. They didn't want to reveal their plans. Well, corporate executives are revealing their plans in their earnings calls. And when reporters ask them, so many of them say: I am not going to invest this in jobs; I am going to invest it in dividends and stock buybacks, send it back to the shareholders.

The harsh fact of the matter is that tax cuts don't result in the kind of economic growth and job growth my Republican friends predict. It didn't happen after the Bush tax cuts. It didn't happen in Kansas, where there were so many promises: If we cut taxes in Kansas, there will be huge growth and new jobs. Well, it was a dramatic flop, what happened in Kansas, that our Republican colleagues are repeating. They are not learning from history. Kansas's job growth last year was much lower than the national average, despite all the big tax cuts they gave.

I am afraid my Republican colleagues and friends are willing to paper over their serious reservations with this bill in order to say that they got something done. They are willing to look past the fact that 60 percent of middle-class families will see tax increases by the end of the day, that healthcare premiums will rise 10 percent, that 13 million fewer Americans will have health insurance, and that the tax bill will exacerbate inequality in an economy that is already perilously unequal--all in the name of deficit-busting corporate tax cuts that will not create the kind of economic growth and job growth they are predicting.

I heard the majority leader speak a minute ago and say: The focus of this bill--these are his words, in effect; I don't know his exact words, but they are like this. He said: The focus of this bill is on the middle class.

It is only on the middle class if you believe in trickle-down economics, that giving money to the wealthy corporations and giving money to the wealthiest of people will create jobs--trickle-down. It has never worked. According to a recent poll, 77 percent of Americans don't believe that big corporations should get tax breaks. They don't believe in trickle-down. The only people who believe in trickle-down seem to be the Members of this Chamber and the big corporation leaders who will get the benefits. Nobody else seems to believe it. Trickle- down is wrong. This bill could be entitled ``the trickle-down tax bill.'' Let's hope and pray, middle-class people, that when we give most of the breaks to the wealthiest and biggest corporations, you might get a few crumbs. Nobody wants that. We could do much better, working together in a bipartisan way.

In conclusion, I would say to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, particularly those who aren't sold on this bill: We can create a better product by working together. Democrats and Republicans agree on many principles in tax reform. We both want to lower rates and close loopholes. We both want to reduce burdens on the middle class and small businesses and simplify the code. I think many on the other side agree with us that it should be deficit-neutral. This bill is none of those things.

If we start over and pursue tax reform in the right way, the bipartisan way, the open way, the sunlight way, I genuinely believe we can find a product that both sides can be proud of and one that will be much, much better--and much better received--by and for the American people.

I yield the floor.

Reservation of Leader Time