Press Releases

In the wee hours of the night, Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Richard E. Neal (D-MA) took to the House Floor to lead the debate against the GOP Tax Scam.

 

WATCH HERE

Transcript: 

Well, this big beautiful bill must be so beautiful that we are debating it at quarter past 4 in the morning to avoid the scrutiny for a piece of legislation that was authored just hours ago. I would challenge some members on the other side to take an exam before we have a chance to vet it. My friend, the chairman, he said his modest youth -- I share a similar story. You know what? We can thank Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal for those opportunities. And talking about growth rates, I thought he was going to say bring back Bill Clinton because that's where those growth rates came from. The cat's out of the bag. $2.3 trillion was borrowed in 2017 that money went to people at the very top.

So what are we about to do this evening or this morning or last night, we are going to borrow $4 trillion and with interest payments, $5 trillion to justify a tax cut for the billionaire class. Or as the gentleman from Kentucky said no liberal, you are talking about adding $5 trillion to the debt over the next years. 14 million people are going to lose their health insurance. We gut Medicaid, food assistance. And everybody in this chamber, call your local hospitals and lay out the formula for how their pay works in terms of reimbursements. Overwhelmingly, it is 2/3 for Medicare and Medicaid and particularly in red states, to closure. 

Let me give you some numbers. Despite that argument, we heard from the other side how this money is going to go to people at the lower end. Their slogan ought to be we are rich and not going to take it anymore. If you made a million last year, $81,000 of tax relief. If you made less than $50,000, guess what? Not quite so lucky, but a dollar a day goes a long way because that's where the numbers land. 

When they talk about broken promises, I listen to a Republican tonight, younger guy, he said, “well, we reject what C.B.O had to say.” In the Ways and Means Committee, this is scripture. We might not like the answers we get from time to time. We might be upset about it, but we know the people who delivered that are not Democrats or Republicans but economists, tax attorneys and CPAs. Let me remind people on the other side about a couple of things. Most of them supported postal reform. They voted for the CHIPs Act. They voted for the infrastructure bill. 30 of them voted for the Butch Lewis Act. How about the PACT Act for our veterans? That cost money. The Inflation Reduction Act, despite their efforts to deride, they are going to take advantage of it right now. One piece of testimony the other night said there is one congressional district that is receiving $6 billion of investment.

Boy, I would hate to explain to my constituents that I was sending $6 billion back to Washington. They supported these issues along the way and want an excuse to cut taxes for the people at the very top. 

That's where they are going, to people at the very top. I hope as we listen in the next few minutes to the contrast we would offer if we were in the majority where we could agree on the basic fact I'm going to offer. We could agree with 98% of the tax legislation if they kept the number at $400,000 and fewer. So people under $400,000 would keep their tax cuts and people at the top would go to 39.6%. They worked fine for the country. We have an honor to keep here.

How about the soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. They deserve our care. Closing veterans’ offices. Veterans are astounded at what is happening already. 

I am looking towards the next 25 minutes of debate. They are trying to sell you at 4:22 in the morning a bad piece of legislation.

###