Legislative Session
Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. Madam President, we are approaching 1 year since the Working Families Tax Cut became law. For nearly a year now, the American people have been seeing…
Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
Madam President, we are approaching 1 year since the Working Families Tax Cut became law. For nearly a year now, the American people have been seeing the benefits of this bill, from a more secure border to a stronger military, larger paychecks and bigger refunds, support for farmers and ranchers, and a lifeline for struggling rural healthcare providers.
For the past year, the story of the Working Families Tax Cut has been unfolding across the country in different ways. And this afternoon, I want to talk about how Republicans' landmark bill has strengthened our economy and put more money in America's pockets.
When this Republican majority took over last year, the American people were reeling from the pain of the Biden economy. They had suffered through an inflation crisis, during which the cost of living increased by more than 20 percent in just a few years. And without action from Congress, they were looking at a $4 trillion tax hike in the not-too-distant future.
For folks from my home State, that would have meant paying $2,500 more in Federal taxes this year, and that was completely unacceptable to Republicans. And so we set out to prevent that tax hike and not just prevent it, we made our 2017 tax reform permanent so that that tax hike would never come.
And then we provided additional tax relief to lower and middle-income Americans so they would be able to keep more of their hard-earned money. Thanks to the Working Families Tax Cut, 97 percent of Americans that filed this year got a tax cut.
Let me repeat that. Republicans prevented a tax hike for 97 percent of tax filers, collectively saving them $82 billion on their Federal taxes just this year.
We made lower tax rates permanent, raised the standard deduction, and made that permanent as well. We increased the child tax credit to $2,200 and linked it to the cost of living so that it never loses its value. Then we created a number of new tax-relief provisions. The new senior deduction helped 35 million Americans over age 65 reduce their tax burden this year.
No tax on tips meant that 7.5 million workers' income from tips landed in their pockets instead of going to the IRS. And 29 million workers--from nurses to police officers and factory workers--took advantage of the new overtime deduction.
All told, Americans earning between $100,000 and $200,000 last year who took advantage of the new tax relief saw an average tax cut of $1,250.
A bakery owner in Sioux Falls said her head chef got a bigger refund this year and that she was able to put that extra money toward a crib for her new baby and she is not the only one. Hard-working people all across the country have additional money to put toward their expenses or their savings thanks to Republican tax relief.
The good news doesn't stop there. The Working Families Tax Cut also delivered meaningful pro-growth tax reforms for Americans' small businesses, farms, and ranches, enabling them to invest more in their operations and in their employees.
Small businesses have benefited from lower tax rates, and the 199A small business deduction is now a permanent feature of the Tax Code. One agricultural co-op in my State estimates the impact of that one provision helped its co-op members reinvest more than $100 million into our local economy in the last 10 years.
Then there is 100 percent immediate expensing for new equipment, which allows small businesses, farms, and ranches to deduct the whole cost of any piece of equipment the year they start using it. The owner of Montgomery's Furniture Store in Sioux Falls, SD, called bonus appreciation a ``huge, huge deal'' for his furniture store.
And a car dealer in my State said this enabled his business to build an addition and to hire 10 new employees. And then our permanent research and development tax credit is making a similar impact on small businesses in my State and on our farm economy.
In fact, our former colleague, a neighbor to the north in North Dakota, former Democrat Senator Heidi Heitkamp has said:
For many producers and ag-related businesses, this is more
than a tax break; this is a real opportunity to reinvest,
innovate, and stay competitive.
She is right, and the same could be said for a good number of provisions in this bill.
I have already talked a little bit about how tax relief we passed benefits farmers and ranchers. And although I haven't mentioned the higher estate tax threshold that protects a lot more family farms and ranchers from the death tax, not to mention the costly estate planning that comes with that unfair tax, but this bill went further than tax relief; it strengthened critical programs that producers depend upon.
It raised reference prices for every covered commodity so that they more closely reflect the actual market conditions that farmers are dealing with. It bolstered crop insurance, and it supported livestock producers by making existing programs more responsive to drought.
We still have more work to do to strengthen the ag sector, but the Working Families Tax Cut delivered meaningful relief to farmers after a challenging few years, defined by higher input costs, higher interest rates, and national disasters--all while many farm programs were inadequate to meet the circumstances that farmers were living in. So helping our ag producers was a priority for Republicans when we came in last year, and it will continue to be a priority for us moving forward.
Rural Healthcare
Madam President, I have spent a lot of time this afternoon talking about how Republicans aim to turn things around with this bill, and there is one more thing I want to discuss before I finish, and that is rural healthcare.
For all the challenges in healthcare today, it is even harder for rural providers. More than 100 rural hospitals have closed in the last two decades, and doctors in rural areas can be hard to come by.
So last year in the Working Families Tax Cut, Republicans did something to address the rural healthcare crisis. And in the last year, every single State has applied for funding from the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program created by our landmark bill.
Rather than a top-down, Washington-based approach, we are giving States the resources and freedom to find solutions to their unique challenges and to find sustainable ways of ensuring access to healthcare in their rural communities.
And as I said, the response has been robust. Every single State--red, blue, and purple--is planning to take advantage of this much needed support, and they have big plans for folks in rural parts of their States. And I can't wait to see just how transformative the Rural Health Transformation Program is across this country.
It is fair to say that things weren't going great in a lot of ways the last
few years before President Trump and Republicans took control in Washington, but we have been working to address those issues and implement solutions to the problems facing the American people. And far from patting ourselves on the back, we are keeping our foot on the gas.
Later today, we will pass a housing affordability bill. The Agriculture Committee is continuing to work on a farm bill and additional agricultural relief, and we continue important legislative efforts on issues from cryptocurrency to artificial intelligence, to reining in waste, fraud, and abuse in the Federal Government.
One year ago, Republicans delivered major wins for the American people in the Working Families Tax Cut, and we are working every day to build on that success and to deliver again and again.
I yield the floor.
Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.