Senators Schumer, Wyden, & Stabenow on the Need to Pass Bipartisan Tax Relief for American Families

e e e e e where's my folus no just drop it oh come on all right hi everyone thank you for coming and uh special thanks to chair widen and Senator stabenau had I not become leader you would have had the top three people on the the finance committee but now you have the top two um anyway thank you for coming uh and but really for the tremendous work to get us here today tomorrow Senators will have a chance to take up a bill that in one Fell Swoop will deliver significant tax relief for American businesses American families American children not to mention it's a wildly by partisan bill it passed the Republican Le house by 357 to70 it's a bill that expands the child tax credit and that's going to do huge good for our kids half a million kids lifted out of poverty 16 million kids mainly lower income middle income uh getting some real tax relief it helps reduce housing costs I insisted that the low-income housing tax credit be added to the bill it's a big expansion in an area we desperately need more housing at reduced costs and low-income housing tax credit will do that it would end fraud in the empy EMP lawyer retention credit which allows processing of claims and it has the small bus it has the um relief uh the tax relief for small businesses uh because when they are able to deduct the costs of research and development the R&D credit they'll be able to employ a lot more people it goes to all businesses and they're all going to and they when they use it it's going to really help so this should be a no-brainer right now the only ones standing in the way are Senate Republicans everyone else even House Republicans are for this look this bill was negotiated between Senator widen our Democratic chairman of the finance committee and Congressman Smith the Republican head of the Ways and Means Committee it's as bipartisan as it comes so the idea that we're that this is a partisan issue is ridiculous yes we want to show where our Republican Senate colleagues are we want to show they're out of touch with their own house Republican colleagues often who are more conservative than they are so it let's be real it's never good it's never a good sign to be further to the right than the House Republicans but that's where the Senate Republicans have landed when they oppose this bill and there's no reason why Senate Republicans oppose a bill that many of them helped right and so many Republicans put had input into so don't take it from me listen to the senator from Missouri the Conservative Republican senator from Missouri what he said about Republican leadership quote they're not interested in passing anything clearly let me say it again they're not interested in passing anything clearly you all know that Senate Republicans have been able to act again and again in a bipartisan way to get things done chips infrastructure veterans Health but now Senate Republicans are tying their own hands they're tying themselves in one big knot when when it comes to a bipartisan tax bill that will benefit business families children housing Senate Republicans say they're champions of business but they're blocking a bill that would reward businesses that invest in R&D R&D has always been a standby a deduction that has been used time and time again so I say to my Senate Republicans I say a sentence I never thought that I would do the right thing and follow your house Republican counterparts on growth on Innovation and pass this bill Senator chairman white thank you U leader and thank you for making it clear how important this is I heard uh last couple of days some Republicans in the Senate claiming that this was a show vote the fact is we could have done this some time ago except Senate Republicans have been no shows they've been no shows on the big issues helping kids helping families helping small businesses the disaster you know issue we've got scores of people all across the country who got clobbered by disasters and now they're getting clobbered Again by an outdated tax code we fix that in this bill Jason Smith and I made this a priority and I want everybody to know that Republicans have said we'll put this off till 2025 you're probably not even going to get a big tax bill done in 2025 if we pass this now we can get it to the president and it'll be signed into law the president's announced it um the vice president has said she's all for it that's what's on the line here and Republicans talk a lot about competing with China and helping small businesses but ever since they messed up singlehandedly and I choose that word specifically research and development credits back in 2017 they've been promising to fix it they promised in 18 and 19 and 20 and 21 22 23 24 years and years of promises here's the time for making choices you can choose to join all of us and the more than 350 members of the House of Representatives leader we were talking about it you and I remember all three of us from our house days you basically in ordinary times you can't get 357 people to agree to buy a piece of pie we got 350 on the pie well and he happens to like pie so the three of us would put it over but I mean right now 16 million kids are hoping that the Senate comes through for them tomorrow more than 4 million small businesses are hoping that they don't have to go to Banks and borrow or close their doors and the Senate comes through for them same is true of families and I'll close with this you know we're hearing a lot on the campaign Trail about families and who's for families well tomorrow everybody in the United States Senate every Democrat and every Republican will have a chance to show not only are they for families but they're for the big families we could tomorrow end historic discrimination against those families with more than one kid 70% of these families have more than one kid now some of you basketball fans sitting out there we all are basketball fans it's summer you know they get one check I mean one check doesn't buy sneakers for three or four kids so this is a chance to actually not just talk about your admiration and affection for big families you could do something about it middle of the day tomorrow and really give families something to look forward to as they work hard play by the rules and get ahead thank you leader Senator St well thank you so much um uh leader Schumer and uh chairman weiden working with chairman Smith I just want to Echo this is a big deal this is a big deal first of all just to come to together in the atmosphere that we're in and to have a House and Senate agreement like this as everyone has said with more than 350 votes is really incredible uh this affects children families small businesses those who are concerned about affordable housing larger entities investing in Innovation I mean this is really important and I do want to stress that for millions of small business businesses who want to innovate and want to expand those who are worried about trying to keep their doors open this is a bill that really is essential I hear about it all the time in Michigan and when it comes to the child tax credit I mean we're talking about giving parents some desperately needed Breathing Room in their as they're caring for their children whether it's paying for child care whether it's paying for clothes or whether it's paying for those tennis shoes or or whatever needed for their children just a little bit of extra help keep the lights on keep food on the table and we know that we are looking at a half a million kids being lifted up out of poverty for this this is a very big deal 16 million children being affected and we need to stress that for everyone who believes that it's important to support families Ames those families with children this is the moment to be able to show that support and one other piece that is so important and and uh Senator Schumer really was instrumental in this relates to affordable housing this is not just an urban issue in northern Michigan uh this last year meeting with a coalition of 15 small Chambers of Commerce all over Northern Michigan their top issue was affordable housing making sure that that people can live in these beautiful uh areas of our state uh but don't have access to uh housing that they can afford so it's a big deal for housing for people it's a big deal for people with children it's a big deal for our businesses large and small and it would be wonderful if we saw an overwhelming bipartisan vote tomorrow questions on this subject yes ma'am not well look let them vote tomorrow on the motion to proceed and then we'll see what happens all the all we're doing voting on tomorrow is to open up the process plain and simple let them vote for it why are they saying vote no yes leader can I add one thing quickly on that we have tried tried again and again to get the Republicans to compromise with us on this and we've I've talked to the leader about it they said for example we were discouraging work joint committee on taxation says no the bill encourages work but then we went to them and offered to take out some of the things that they didn't like so the leader point when he and I talked about it addresses your issue we offered them compromises they weren't acceptable to them we've been trying it for months months to get a compromise I told I told I told um ranking member crabo I told chairman Smith we're open to compromise they are doing what the Republicans have done on Bill after Bill whether it's border or AI or now crypto which Debbie worked on they just don't want to pass anything they don't want to pass anything that's not what the American people want that's not what the American people are demanding they're saying do something to make our lives better this bill does yes well look I think if they block the bill they're going to feel a lot of pressure over August recess and maybe they'll come back to us and say okay we're willing to negotiate that's what we hope would happen yes the national debt just trilon you know first our Republicans colleagues argue when you cut taxes on business you reduce the deficit and the R&D credit has proven to be a very very successful measure of creating more jobs and bringing in more dollars yes we all do we all prefer the American Rescue plan it was one of the greatest things it was one of the first things I did as majority leader but this was a compromise we had a deal with Republicans in the house if we get back the Senate uh uh s sorry if we keep the Senate get back the house win the presidency we're going to go much further thank you everybody thank you I'll stick around and give you the math on the fact that it's fully paid for joint committee on taxation the $78 billion half goes to families half goes to business but it is a fully paid for effort and that's not me the joint committee on taxation for