(This post directly follows the previous post which now focuses on discussion and debate of the new tax bill.)

Mr. BRADY of Texas: Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. McHenry), our chief deputy whip.

Mr. McHENRY: Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee for his hard work and effort, his staff’s effort, and his committee members’ effort to put this great bill on the floor today.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is a vitally important bill. This will help all Americans’ lives for the better. The name fits for this bill as well. It truly is a tax cut for American working families, and it creates good-paying jobs.

The bill is the result of over 3 years of hard work here in the House of Representatives. It has been clear for years that our Tax Code is broken. We all agree on that. Simply put, it does not work for the vastmmajority of the American people.

What we do is simplify the Tax Code. More Americans will be able to take a standard deduction, file on a postcard their tax return, simplifying the process. Importantly, it makes us more competitive internationally so we don’t lose jobs to overseas companies. That makes us stronger as a nation.

At the same time, it helps small businesses compete with those large businesses, with those global businesses, and makes sure that our Main Streets are strong in America.

This is a very good bill. It is a very good bill, well contemplated,and will have a great impact on working families. The bill helps families in my district in particular. The Tax Foundation says that average middle class families in my district in western North Carolina are going to see a $2,400 increase in their take-home pay. That is real money for working Americans. It is realmmoney for North Carolinians as well.

The bill also helps small businesses by reducing their tax rates and allowing them to create more good-paying jobs. We need that. Small businesses are the lifeblood of western North Carolina’s communities. We need them strengthened.

The same Tax Foundation study estimates that this bill will create nearly a million new jobs nationwide, including more than 30,000 in North Carolina alone.

Now, there is a great debate in this body about the approach we took on this bill. There is a fundamental disagreement between the two parties here.

My colleagues on the left want more power, more expenditures from government, and want to take more from the American people in order to pay for that.

We believe, on the Republican side of the aisle, that American families should be able to keep more of what they earn, make more decisions for themselves, empower communities, empower small businesses, make us more competitive and make us stronger.

I urge my colleagues to vote for this bill, to send a strong message that we in the House of Representatives have a strong tax package for the American people. I look forward to getting this bill signed into law before Christmas.

Mr. NEAL: Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Larson), and I ask unanimous consent that he may control that time.

The SPEAKER pro tempore: Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Massachusetts?

(There was no objection.)

Mr. LARSON of Connecticut: Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley), the chairman of the Democratic Caucus and a great leader on the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. CROWLEY: Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.

I have to give it to Speaker Ryan and to President Trump and all of my Republican colleagues. I have to give them their due. They announced earlier this year they would cut taxes for corporate special interests, and today they are following through on that promise.

The problem is, in order to do it, they are raising taxes on middle class families. Don’t take my word for it. Listen to them.

The Republicans started this process by saying that every American, everyone in America, will get a tax cut. Now they are saying, on average, people will get a tax cut, and even that is incorrect.

It is time to be honest with the American people. What we have before us today isn’t a bill, it is a scam–a scam that will hurt homeowners in Irvine, California, in Mrs. Walters’ district; a scam that will hurt seniors in Lancaster, New York, in Congressman Chris Collins’ district; a scam that will hurt students in Toms River, New Jersey, in Tom MacArthur’s district; a scam that will hurt veterans in Barrington, Illinois, in Pete Roskam’s district; and a scam that will absolutely hurt the middle class in every congressional district in our country, 36 million people to be exact.

In my district, a quarter of all homeowners will lose the ability to deduct their taxes, but corporate special interests, they can still deduct their taxes under the GOP plan.

Mr. Speaker, 20,000 students in Queens and the Bronx, in my district, will lose one of the most effective ways to pay down their student loan debt. That is right. Republicans are eliminating the ability to deduct the interest on student loan payments.

This scam eliminates the assistance for small businesses to hire veterans here at home, but it continues the tax breaks to ship American jobs overseas. Yes, you heard that correctly. Republicans and President Trump are doling out tax breaks for companies to move overseas but will take away benefits to hire American veterans right here at home.

These aren’t the values of my constituents, but, apparently, they are the values of Speaker Ryan, President Trump, and the entire congressional Republican caucus.

So how did we end up here? It is because when the Republicans sat down to write this bill, they didn’t have the average American in mind. They had their wealthy donors and corporate friends in mind. Republicans started tax reform with this question: How do we get the corporate rate down? Democrats would have started with the question: How do we raise up the middle class?

Republicans wrote a bill, a tax scam, that benefits people who own second and third homes, but they left behind average American homeowners. They left behind teachers, who use their own money to buy school supplies. They left average Americans behind, because they never had you in mind to begin with.

The SPEAKER pro tempore: The time of the gentleman has expired.

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(Congressional Record – Tax Cuts And Jobs Act Part 1)

(Congressional Record – Tax Cuts And Jobs Act Part 2)

(Congressional Record – Tax Cuts And Jobs Act Part 3)

(Congressional Record – Tax Cuts And Jobs Act Part 4)

(Congressional Record – Tax Cuts And Jobs Act Part 5)

(Congressional Record – Tax Cuts And Jobs Act Part 6)

(Congressional Record – Tax Cuts And Jobs Act Part 7)

(Congressional Record – Tax Cuts And Jobs Act Part 8)

(Congressional Record – Tax Cuts And Jobs Act Part 9)

(Congressional Record – Tax Cuts And Jobs Act Part 10)

(Congressional Record – Tax Cuts And Jobs Act Part 11)

(Congressional Record – Tax Cuts And Jobs Act Part 12)

(Congressional Record – Tax Cuts And Jobs Act Part 13)

(Congressional Record – Tax Cuts And Jobs Act Part 14)

(Congressional Record – Tax Cuts And Jobs Act Part 15)

(Congressional Record – Tax Cuts And Jobs Act Part 16)