Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order. Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I rise…
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.
Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I rise today to co-anchor this Congressional Black Caucus Special Order hour.
I also want to take the time to acknowledge our chair, the Honorable Cedric Richmond from the State of Louisiana.
For the next hour, we have a chance to speak directly to the American people on issues that are important to the Congressional Black Caucus. The issue right now that seems to be of the most importance to the Congressional Black Caucus and the constituents that we represent, and the American public, for that matter, is tax reform, and the plan that is being considered that the Speaker has indicated that he would like for us to vote on this week.
We have a few Members here who would like to take the time to also express their interest in this. This is a very big deal, obviously. We don't do tax reform that often. The last time we did tax reform was in the early 1980s, and that was, obviously, something that was very bipartisan. This experience has not been bipartisan whatsoever, and we are concerned also about the effect that it is going to have on our constituencies.
Mr. Speaker, I am going to open it up for Members to talk about whatever it is that they would like to, but I did want to let you know that the main topic was going to be tax reform.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Payne for his participation again and for always participating in the CBC Special Order hours. We know that these are very important. Our constituencies, again, want to hear how we stand on these issues. They are getting a lot of press right now. So I thank the gentleman very much for being here this evening.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne), my friend and colleague.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Payne very much for speaking this evening on the importance of this tax bill and that we debate this and really, again, just keep or constituents informed. Mr. Payne takes every one seriously, and I know he has tried to participate in as many of these as he can, and I thank him for that--again, the importance of talking about this tax bill, talking about the Republicans' past attempts at failed trickle-down policies and trying to bring those same policies and put them in this tax reform bill and trying to rush us into a floor vote this week.
We should all be working together to try to come up with some sort of bipartisan solution, some sort of bipartisan policy position that will be good for everyone, because I can tell you, Mr.
Speaker, that for many of the low-income and working class and lower middle class constituents and middle class constituents in the district that I represent, I know that people are going to be hurt.
Mr. Speaker, I know Mr. Payne is concerned about that. I know the 49 members of the Congressional Black Caucus are concerned about that.
This is very serious, and it could have very long-lasting implications, as has been pointed out by advocacy groups and others from all sides of the political spectrum. It is not just Democrats or the Progressive community that is concerned about this. There are a lot of people who are concerned about a variety of the different programs here that are going to be affected.
Mr. Speaker, again, I appreciate everything that Mr. Payne brings to this, particularly with him representing New Jersey, because we know that, for that particular part of the country, housing and other goods can sometimes be even more expensive, and it can be a very tough hardship on families. When you add this tax bill to the fold, it makes it even more daunting.
Mr. Speaker, we want to make sure the American Dream doesn't become the American nightmare while people are trying to figure out how they are going to make their house payment and pay for their house.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Payne very much for his remarks.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to my colleague from the city of Houston, Harris County, our country's fourth largest city, Sheila Jackson Lee. I thank Representative Jackson Lee for always participating in these Special Order hours.
Mr. Speaker, I know that, in particular, the gentlewoman's concern is Houston, being such a large part of our State, a large part of our Nation's capital economy, and the effects of this tax bill. When you start talking about something affecting Houston, with it being the fourth largest city, it can have very consequential effects on our entire State, because their economy is such a big part of what makes Texas go.
Mr. Speaker, I again thank the gentlewoman for being a part of this.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague, my fellow Texan, for her eloquence in laying out the issues with the Republican tax plan.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Evans), my friend and colleague, for being here. I thank the gentleman for always offering his insight on these matters. I know that, in addition, just like the gentlewoman from Texas, that he is open to a broad array of topics. I appreciate any insight the gentleman wants to give us on tax reform or any of the other issues that the American public wants to hear from their congressional representatives on this day.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Evans).
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman very much for laying out those concerns about the tax plan, and he did so very eloquently. I always appreciate the gentleman's participation.
Kind of building on what the gentleman talked about, I just want to give the American public out there and the constituents that we represent in the Congressional Black Caucus just a quick outline of who exactly this plan will hurt.
I am very concerned about this terrible tax plan because it is going to cut rates for the highest 1 percent of earners and corporations, while increasing the tax burden on lower and middle class families, while the Republicans are falsely going around claiming that they are going to be helping these individuals and these families. That is just not the case. That is not the case at all.
For example, let me give you one area that has been touched upon that I am concerned about, and that is State and local taxes. You won't be eligible any longer for the deduction, which means many individuals end up paying twice the amount of taxes on the same income.
The elimination of deductions for student loan payments: we have talked extensively on this House floor, on the Democratic side, about what students loans are doing to this country and the costs of a higher education. We know that a lot of people seek out higher education just because of the benefits that it can yield incomewise, and everybody is, again, always trying to see
how they are going to live that American Dream. They want to be able to pay their taxes, pay their car payment, pay their house note, whatever it may happened to be. When you look at the fact that people won't be able to write off their student loans to help pay for their education anymore, that is really going to hurt and probably convince a lot of young people that they just shouldn't seek out higher education.
We want young people to seek out a higher education. I mean, even the blue-collar jobs out there we know are becoming harder and harder to keep and maintain, and they require some form of education. Even going to community college for a couple years after they graduate from high school almost seems to be something that they have to do.
The Center for American Progress found that 78 percent of Black students, in comparison to 57 percent of White students, took out Federal loans for their undergraduate studies. And again, just not being able to write those off means that dream that everyone has, regardless of race, being able to buy their first home, the American Dream, they are going to have to put that off because they can no longer pay off these very costly student loan interest payments. These tax deduction eliminations are going to be very troubling for so many people in the community in light of the fight just to build generational wealth.
Again, these trickle-down tactics, we have been talking about trickle-down economics now for a very long time, but some of these trickle-down tactics are proving not to work, and it is disheartening to see the finish line just being moved again and again, just over and over again. Every time people seem like they are doing better, just to see that finish line moved once again and making it just hard on these families that I talked about earlier that fall in those lower middle class, working class, middle class tax brackets.
You are talking about, when you look at this really closely, the restructuring of these tax brackets under the Republican plan would make it so that the lowest income earners' tax rates are going to increase from 10 to 12 percent, the lowest earners out there. Some of the poorest amongst us will have their tax burden increased, and it will make it so much more difficult for them to climb that economic ladder of opportunity. It is already hard to climb that ladder of opportunity.
Just think about it for just a minute, if you have two kids and you have a 10 percent tax burden, and you are making a small amount of money a year but you are out there working hard every day. You are trying to get overtime. You are punching the clock as much as you possibly can. You are having Grandma watch the kids just so you can pull that extra shift to get those hours in, but you are a single mom and you are just really out there just busting it each and every day, week after week, and you still don't have any money in the bank. You are still having a hard time making ends meet. You are still getting rent notices put on the door once a month. It is just so tough, and just to know that we are not really going to be doing anything at all in this body. The Republicans aren't going to be doing anything to help these individuals be able to climb out of that hole and just be able to see the light. Just knowing that that mom and those kids are going to probably struggle under this tax plan until the kids leave the house, it is just really disheartening.
In addition to that, even the tax provisions that are aimed at helping working families are actually reserved, again, for just the wealthiest few in the community.
White House Republicans highlight their expansion of the child tax credit. Many of the lowest income parents who are in need of assistance will only be eligible to receive a partial amount of the tax credit, if any of the expansion at all.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the GOP child tax credit keeps the lowest income workers from benefiting from the expansion of the credit, despite numerous studies finding that the child tax credits benefit children by improving school performance, higher college enrollment, and increasing earnings in adulthood.
Further, this tax plan refuses to take the interests of African- American communities as a whole into consideration, ensuring those who are striving to reach the American Dream will simply fall short.
Again, there is just so much in this bill that is going to be tough.
You are talking about repealing the estate tax. There are so many people whom I have heard--Rockefellers, Buffetts, Bill Gates, and others--who are saying that they are fine paying that, that they are absolutely okay with paying that. You think about what we are going to take away from people so they don't have to pay that estate tax. I mean, it is just amazing.
You have heard so many of my colleagues talk about it earlier here, but when you start talking about the local and State tax deductions, when you start talking about the student loan deductions that people really count on, when you start talking about child tax credits, when you start talking about new market tax credits, so many programs and so many things out there that are really helping individuals, helping our economy, and we want to give it back so a few wealthy people don't have to pay estate taxes? I mean, it is just really sad, Mr. Speaker, when you think about that.
One of the things that I think that we ought to do, instead of giving ultrarich people a pass on paying a billion dollars that they can pass down to heirs, is that we ought to start thinking about doing something to help grandparents who are raising grandchildren.
I will never forget, when I was in the State legislature, I had a principal come up to me on the house floor, and I was showing the kids--I believe it was on the senate floor. We had walked to the other side. And there is a picture of the Battle of San Jacinto that hangs there in Austin at the capitol, and I was showing the schoolchildren, and the principal pulled me aside and she said: I want to thank you for talking about grandparents who are raising grandchildren.
She said: Over 50 percent of the kids at the elementary school where I am principal are raised by someone other than their parent, and 99 percent of the time it is the grandparent.
Instead of giving superrich people, ultrarich people a pass on paying the inheritance tax, why don't we give grandparents who serve as primary caregivers for their grandchildren out there a $500 refundable tax credit? That would help out so much, because you have to think about what these grandparents are facing.
They didn't think that their Social Security check or their pension check was going to have to be used to help pay for school supplies, help pay for school clothes, help pay for backpacks, help pay for school uniforms, help pay for kids' haircuts, prom dresses. The grandparents of America out there are really balancing a lot now, more than any other generation of grandparents have.
We could take the money that we are going to give away to the Bill Gateses and the Warren Buffetts and the Rockefellers and other folks like that, and we could give it to these grandparents, grandparents who represent people from every congressional district in this country.
Oftentimes, you start talking about grandparents who are raising grandchildren, there has been some kind of issue with drugs or alcohol in the kids' parents' life or some other reason why the parents can't take care of the kids. We know that that is true, particularly with the issues that we have had with the opioid crisis. We know that this is an area that is growing in all congressional districts, all races, all backgrounds.
Again, why not give our grandparents out there that are buying backpacks with their Social Security check, why not give them a $500 refundable tax credit to help them make ends meet? If we were to do that, these grandparents would be able to have a little bit more money to buy healthier foods instead of buying processed foods. They could buy fruits, vegetables, other things like that that could really go a long way in just helping them maintain their household.
That is what I am eager to do. I want to sit down with colleagues and come up with something that is fair. I think
that everybody here that I have talked to has said that they want to work in a bipartisan manner to be able to pass a tax reform bill that is fair, that is done under regular order, that is done with transparency and done in the light, but the way that this is happening, it is just not right.
We know, again, that these trickle-down economics just simply do not work, and we need to start all over. We need to head back to the drawing board and sit down as Democrats and Republicans like they did back in the eighties when Reagan was President and Tip O'Neill was Speaker and work out some of these issues that the American public has.
We know that people are very anxious about some of the things that they have been hearing about this tax reform bill, people from all congressional districts and, again, all backgrounds. We in the Congressional Black Caucus, we are concerned about the impact that this is going to have in the African-American communities around this country--and all of the communities, quite frankly, Mr. Speaker.
Again, let's just sit down at the drawing board, talk about some of these things, and come up with something that is fair that the American public can feel good about, knowing that Members of Congress, that they are not trying to gain advantage over one another, that we are trying to come up with a fair way how to reform our Tax Code, keep our businesses here, and keep a little bit more money in people's pockets at the end of the week or the end of the month, whenever they get paid, so they can take care of their families and buy a home, take care of their grandkids, do whatever it is they need to do in order to make ends meet.
Mr. Speaker, thank you very much for this evening, and I yield back the balance of my time.