During remarks on the Senate floor Monday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) spoke about the expiration of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
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00:00Madam President, on another matter, we have just arrived back in the nation's capital
00:04following a couple weeks back home, and I'm glad to report that I was able to put that
00:10time to good use.
00:13It's no secret that Texas is one of the best places in the country to do business, and
00:18that was certainly confirmed by my visit back home these last couple weeks.
00:24I had the opportunity to visit with some of our most impressive businesses from major
00:29manufacturing facilities to local family-owned small businesses.
00:35One such visit was to Dykin Texas Technology Park in Waller County, a suburb of Houston.
00:44There I had the opportunity to tour their facility and attend a town hall with many of their employees.
00:50It is a truly impressive facility, employing more than 10,000 workers in our state and
00:57leading the world in engineering and manufacturing of heating and air conditioning products.
01:03I also visited Alliance Texas, which is actually in Tarrant County or Fort Worth, which is now
01:11a master, I should say massive master planned mixed-use development in North Texas.
01:19Alliance is home to a number of important businesses, residential neighborhoods and a thriving island
01:26inland port that boosts our country's supply chains.
01:31Located along an interstate with rail and air access at 27,000 acres, Alliance is nearly
01:38double the size of Manhattan.
01:42From its inception in 1990 until today, Alliance has had an incredible $130 billion economic impact
01:51on our state.
01:54As you might imagine, one of the major themes of my discussions back home was the importance
01:59of our major task at hand here in the Senate, which is extending the expiring provisions of
02:06the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
02:09While we made an important first step by passing the budget resolution in the House and the Senate,
02:15now the various committees of jurisdiction have their work cut out for them to pencil in the
02:23details of the precise policies that will then require the President's signature.
02:30I spent a great deal of time back home hearing about the importance of these tax cuts and how
02:35they have benefited not just Texas families but small businesses throughout the state.
02:43I know most of the time when we think about job creators, we think about Fortune 500 companies.
02:49But the fact is, in Texas and across the nation, it is our small businesses that are the primary
02:55engine of job creation.
03:00In the Dallas area, I met with Andy Elard, the owner and general manager of Manda Machine Company,
03:08a third-generation family-owned company in Dallas.
03:13Andy's grandparents founded the company in 1950, operating the business out of a back room in their house.
03:21Eventually, when the time came for them to retire, they sold the business to their daughter
03:26and her husband, who in turn sold it to their children.
03:30Now, more than seven decades later, Andy and his siblings are the third-generation owners of Manda Machine Company.
03:39Now, if that is not the American dream, I don't know what is.
03:43Andy told me how beneficial the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act were for his family business.
03:49He said that over the last three years, he's been able to invest $80,000 in improving his business as a result of that legislation.
03:57So, if the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are not extended at the end of this year, Andy and his employees in this small business
04:05will lose out on these benefits that have helped his business grow and thrive and provide employment for other families.
04:13Now, I visited another place in the Rio Grande Valley, this one called 5x5 Brewing Company.
04:21This is a veteran-owned, as it sounds, brewery which is dedicated to brotherhood tradition and, yes, you guessed it, great beer.
04:34This tradition is reflected on their menu as many of their signature beverages have names of military significance.
04:40There, at 5x5, we had a panel discussion of small business owners, including Luis Espindola, who was one of the co-owners of 5x5 and a Marine Corps veteran.
04:53I met with other business owners at that panel, like Sarah Hammond, who owns Atlas Electrical Air Conditioning, Refrigeration, and Plumbing Services.
05:03Sarah is known as a pillar of her community, serving as chair of the Rio Grande Valley Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and helping to oversee the management of Hummingbird Trailer Park.
05:16On top of this, she's involved with an organization dedicated to helping develop and empower other women business owners.
05:24Then there was Jessica Delgado, who, having worked in the restaurant industry since age 16, now owns multiple restaurants.
05:35And she serves on the board of the Texas Restaurant Association and is a former chairwoman of the Texas Restaurant Foundation.
05:43Another impressive women small business owner was Hortensia Carmago, the owner of C4 Transport, and Hacienda La Hortensia, a licensed realtor in McAllen, Texas.
05:59And she's also the founder of GRASP, which advocates safe gun storage practices for children.
06:06I also had the chance on this same panel to visit with representatives of the agricultural sector, including Dante Galeazzi,
06:21and who is president and CEO of Texas International Produce Association,
06:26who emphasized to me how beneficial the Trump tax cuts were for Texas farmers and ranchers.
06:33The message I heard from all of these impressive Texas entrepreneurs, job creators, and pillars of the community was simple.
06:41The Trump tax cuts helped their businesses grow and flourish, providing benefits not only to themselves and their families,
06:50but to their employees and their broader communities.
06:54The stories I heard from my fellow Texans like Andy, Luis, Sarah, Hortensia, Jessica, and others,
07:01show how patently false the accusation is of our Democratic colleagues,
07:06who somehow claim that this is just to benefit rich people.
07:10The fact of the matter is the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are not about helping the wealthy few
07:17at the expense of our ordinary Americans, contrary to the Democratic talking points.
07:25You know, I've been here working in Washington or what I like to call the forward operating base in hostile territory for some time now,
07:35and the truth is you get these prevailing narratives that get repeated over and over and over again
07:42and written about by the press that simply have no basis in fact or reality.
07:48And the truth is, if we fail to extend the expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,
07:5662% of American taxpayers will see their taxes go up.
08:02And obviously on top of a 40-year high inflation, which has raised input costs across the board by about 20% or more
08:12as a result of the policies of the previous administration,
08:15that obviously would have a tremendously negative impact on our economy and the standard of living,
08:21like the folks I mentioned back home.
08:24This is really about lifting up hardworking men and women across the country.
08:30The tax cuts are about helping every hardworking American achieve their dreams.
08:37If President Trump's tax cuts are not extended, as I say, virtually everybody,
08:43or at least the significant supermajority of American working families will see a tax increase.
08:50Texans specifically will see taxes increase about $3,000 on average.
08:57I'm sure every single one of my constituents can think about somewhere better to spend that $3,000
09:04than to write a check to the IRS.
09:07Small business owners, like many of the folks I met with these last two weeks,
09:11would see tax hikes of nearly 50%.
09:15And working families could see their child tax credit cut in half,
09:20along with the standard deduction, which was dramatically increased in 2017.
09:26Despite these hard facts, our Democratic colleagues continue to peddle the myth
09:31that President Trump's tax cuts are just for rich folks.
09:35It couldn't be more clear that these claims are nothing more than just that – myths.
09:40So I urge my fellow Republican colleagues to never mind the naysayers across the aisle.
09:47The American people on November the 5th gave us a job to do.
09:51We took the important first step by passing the budget resolution just before the Senate adjourned.
09:57And now that we are back in Washington, it's time that we finish the job.
10:02Madam President, I yield the floor, and I would note the absence of a quorum.