Richard Neal

Mr. NEAL

Mr. NEAL. CBO accountants came back the other day and said: Let us tell you right now what is wrong. They gave us hardcore numbers about economic growth, and they gave us hardcore numbers about debt and deficits. Do you know what the answer was? Let's not believe what they have to say. Let's not pay any attention to what they have to say because it doesn't square with the philosophy of tax cuts paying for themselves. So the last point is, if you voted for the tax cuts and you voted for the omnibus spending bill on the Republican side--because I know no Democrat voted for the tax cut--today, when you come in, you ought to wear a mask when you cast your vote because Jesse James would be honored.

Mr. NEAL

Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, the House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 1625, showing the text of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018, before the House for debate today includes tax provisions, including technical corrections to tax legislation enacted prior to 2017. These tax technical corrections are important to provide clarity to taxpayers and to the administration of the law. As Ways and Means Committee Chairman and Ranking Member, Kevin Brady and I asked the staff of the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation to make available to the public a technical explanation of the tax provisions of this legislation. The technical explanation expresses the Committee's understanding and legislative intent behind the tax provisions of this legislation. It is available on the Joint Committee's website at www.jct.gov. It is document JCX-6-18, Technical Explanation of the Revenue Provisions of the House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 1625 (Rules Committee Print 115-66).

Mr. NEAL

Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Levin), who is the longest-serving member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), who is an extraordinary man. Our friend is the ranking member of the Oversight Subcommittee.

Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett), who is a valued member of the Ways and Means Committee and the ranking member of the Tax Policy Subcommittee.

Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, might I inquire as to how much time is remaining?

Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), who is the Democratic whip.

Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley), who is the chairman of the Democratic Caucus and a valued member of the Ways and Means Committee.

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

Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute. Mr. Speaker, the President just said in the last few minutes that the most important part of this legislation is the corporate tax cuts. Stop the nonsense that you are doing this for the middle class. In the 20 hours that have elapsed, Mr. Speaker, since we last had this debate, we were promised a number of things. The only thing they left out was that this tax bill was going to stem the tides, take us to Mars tomorrow, and the Cleveland Browns were going to win the Super Bowl. The certainty of what they are telling us--if the stockmarket goes up, then they did it. The stockmarket has been going up since March of 2009. They talk about economic growth. Economic growth has now proceeded for 88 straight months. They keep telling us the rocket is about to launch because of this tax bill. Do you know what is great about this, Mr. Speaker? Reporters outside are starting to ask: Are you going to help them out if all of these things don't occur in the way they have said they are going to occur? I said: After the appropriate period of review. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Danny K. Davis), who is a champion of any and all things Chicago.

Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close on this side, and I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, so in 1 month we have taken the entire revenue system of the United States without hearing from one expert witness, without having had one public hearing, without using any precedent, and we changed the entire tax system of the country, tilting it clearly to the people at the very top. When they say, as they certainly will, ``We have been doing hearings for 5 years,'' we never had one hearing on this legislation. Not one. We did not seek testimony from one witness in the conference committee. We got to offer opening statements and no amendments. There was no chance for any input on our side. More than anything else, this is a missed opportunity. This was a missed chance to take a system that we all know to have fallen into competitive failure across the globe. But instead, they decided to go it alone. So here is the way you want to think of this, for those of you who are following this debate: They are borrowing $2.3 trillion for the purpose of cutting the top tax bracket from 39.6 percent to 37 percent and calling that middle class tax relief; They are doubling the exemption on the estate tax to $22 million and calling that middle class tax relief; They are eliminating the alternative minimum tax for people at the very top and calling it middle class tax relief. By the 10th year of this tax proposal, 83 percent of the benefit accrues to the people at the very top of our economic system. That is not in dispute. They say things like: Well, in 5 years, we are going to correct this measure. Then they talked about the idea that somehow this was about simplicity. When you get into the phase-ins and the phaseouts, you are all going to pass out from trying to read this tax proposal. The complexity they add to the system is unparalleled, all to secure a tax cut for people at the top. So here we are in the holiday season, and they are telling us, by the way, that if we just borrow this money, everything is going to be fine. What did they say about borrowing when Bill Clinton was President? What did they say about borrowing when Barack Obama was President? They lectured us, day in and day out, in an unyielding manner, even though the economic performance of Clinton and Obama outweighed the two Republican Presidents in between. So here is the game plan for the holiday season. Do you know what the holiday hangover on your credit card is? People go out and use their credit cards, and they figure out all year how to try to pay for it. It is going to take you more than 10 years to try to pay for this, all upon the spurious notion that they guarantee economic growth, as the President said, by the way, that is going to exceed 6 percent. That is 6 percent. They are telling us that the stock market has gone up because of them, even though it has gone up since March of 2009. They are telling us now that this is going to spur unparalleled economic growth, even though the economy has been growing for 88 straight months, all on the credit card for the American people. Mr. Speaker, this is the worst piece of legislation that has come from the House in the 29 years that I have served here, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from California (Mr. Thompson), who is a Vietnam veteran and a distinguished member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. NEAL

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mr. NEAL. I reserve the balance of my time.