Tax Reform

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, on another note, we heard some great news yesterday, in terms of our economy. Consumer confidence has jumped to a 17-year high. Optimism continues to surge as employers and payroll services across the country continue to implement the reforms to our Tax Code that we passed last December in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

What is more, the Treasury Department has now released the new withholding tables that went into effect earlier this month and reflect the changes passed as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

I got a call from someone close to me. I will leave it at that--I don't want to embarrass her--who said she opened her paycheck, and she had $240 more in her paycheck than she had in the previous month as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. She didn't regard this as crumbs; she thought it would make a positive difference in her life.

I think many Americans are having the same experience, seeing an increase in their take-home pay even in the month of February. As I said, for some, it is several hundred dollars extra each pay period, which is money that can be saved for a rainy day or invested for their retirement or future, or it could be used to pay for their child's education or to put new tires on their car. A married couple with two children, making about $75,000 a year, will see an estimated tax cut of approximately $2,000.

That is just on the individual side. What we are seeing across the country is greater than just what is happening to single families and households, though. It is good to see at the micro level or the personal level, so to speak, what the impact is, but we also have to see the bigger picture in terms of our economy, the jobs created, the investment opportunities, and the way to grow our economy, and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has had a profound impact on that.

So far, at least 417 companies have announced new investments, pay raises, bonuses, and charitable contributions. They have added new employee training and increased contributions to pensions and 401(k) retirement accounts. According to the White House, more than 4.4 million workers have been positively affected. It is no wonder the tax law is becoming more and more popular as people have learned more about it. Even the New York Times has had to agree that the public is learning to love the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act because of the positive impact on hard-working American lives.

I see the wide-ranging effect of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in my State. Thanks to a competitive tax system, for example, Fort Worth- based companies like American Airlines paid large bonuses to their employees. AT&T, which is headquartered in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, paid $1,000 to more than 200,000 men and women across the country who work for that company. Just as important, AT&T announced $1 billion in capital investments, which could create as many as 7,000 jobs.

Texas also proves that the effects of tax reform are more than just a one-time-only impact. Waste Management, based in Houston, has already paid bonuses to drivers and landfill workers, but its CEO emphasized in an interview that the company will continue to spend money on its people beyond 2018. ExxonMobil, headquartered in Las Colinas in the Dallas area, will expand oil production in West Texas. Oncor, one of the largest investor-owned utilities in the State, will issue future refunds to customers on their utility bills. And Walmart, which is the largest employer in Texas, increased starting wages, expanded parental leave, and offered financial assistance to employees who choose to adopt.

It is not just the big players, though; small businesses are doing the same thing. In Corpus Christi recently, I visited with the owners of Groomer's Seafood, who plan to expand distribution facilities serving thousands of restaurants statewide. American Bank in Corpus Christi is projecting that it can lend an additional $120 million as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. That is money it can lend to small businesses to grow or start a new business. In San Antonio, my hometown, Cox Manufacturing will move up construction of a new 8,000- square-foot plant. In Amarillo, up in the Panhandle of Texas, Happy State Bank made news to go with its name, which is higher hourly pay. In Lumberton, TX, the women running an engineering company called Leak Sealers paid tax savings forward to employees, calling on other businesses to do the same.

Our colleagues here in Washington who voted against the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act made a big mistake. I think they are beginning to realize that now, as the good news is rolling in. They have mostly kept quiet in terms of the criticism they lodged against the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as we were debating it because they can't deny the facts, and they can't deny what is happening all across America--more take-home pay, more jobs, more money being invested and coming back home from overseas, and its generally being a very positive piece of legislation.

Some have said--like Ms. Pelosi--that the tax cuts we passed just help job creators and give crumbs to others, but that is not true. Individuals will benefit from lower rates across the board. They will see an increase in the standard deduction and the child tax credit too.

One overlooked part of the law will help bring investments and jobs to distressed communities, creating opportunity zones in every State. That is something our colleague Senator Scott championed and made sure was part of the bill.

So, Mr. President, amidst our pain, anguish, and the horror of terrible incidents like that which occurred in Parkland, FL, there is good news to be found, but it is hard to focus on the good news when our constituents are looking at us and asking what we are going to do to make sure that the next potential mass shooting is prevented and that we have done everything in our power to try to stop it. I am not sure we will be able to stop all of them, but we can stop some of them. We can make sure that incidents like that which occurred in Sutherland Springs, TX--that somebody who is already illegally disqualified from purchasing a firearm doesn't get their hands on one.

Well, we know what we have to do, and what I am asking all of our colleagues to do--including the Democratic leader, Senator Schumer, who is a cosponsor of Fix NICS, along with the Republican majority leader-- let's do this. Let's pass this bill. We could do it in one day, give people an opportunity to debate it and vote on it. If we keep looking for the perfect and make sure that the perfect is somehow the enemy of the good, we will end up with nothing. But we can't end up with nothing. America deserves something that will make a difference. The people in Parkland, FL, and in Sutherland Springs, TX, deserve something better, and I believe that Fix NICS is the best place to start.

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