Pelosi Remarks at Ways & Means Committee Democrats' Tax Reform Forum

Leader Pelosi Opening Remarks

Leader Pelosi.  Thank you very much, Ranking Member [Richard] Neal for hosting us today but also for your great leadership on doing just that: promoting tax reform that creates growth, creates good-paying jobs, raises wages and reduces the deficit.

Today, we gather for this vital forum on the need for real tax reform.  What Republicans are putting out – they should never call it reform, it's tax cuts for the special interest and the high-end – for real tax reform instead that puts the middle class first.  And to spotlight Republicans' trickle-down economics to hide the true cost to the middle class of the Republican tax cuts to the wealthiest one percent in our country.

Democrats, again, have always been willing to engage in bipartisan tax reform.  But the Ryan-McConnell tax framework is not tax reform, it is a framework that gives away the store to the wealthiest while sticking the middle class with the bill.

Republicans are clearly stuck on the same tired, trickle down agenda as always.  Democrats again will continue to demand job-creating, wage-raising tax reform with not one penny in tax breaks for the one percent.

Part of the Republican strategy is the fuzzy math of dynamic scoring that tells families that tax cuts for the wealthy pay for themselves.  That is indeed deceptive.

We know the cost of the Republican tax plan will be catastrophic for our budget and for the future of the working people in our country.  It will explode the deficit, adding trillions of dollars to the deficit.  It will be a backdoor attempt to devastate the bedrock initiatives that families rely on, like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.  It is a swindle of the American people, selling the same blueprint of the failed trickle-down Bush tax cuts for the rich that did not create jobs and will only increase the deficit.

It triggers a massive opportunity cost, blocking a critical domestic job-creating investments such as infrastructure, education and job training which do bring money to the treasury.  Nothing brings more money to the treasury than investing in education, early childhood, K through 12, high education, post-grad, all that lifetime learning.  So if we want to reduce the deficit, we should increase our investment in education, not in tax cuts for the high-end.

Behind Republicans' vague framework and deceptive math, the American people find a billionaires-first tax plan that fails the middle class.  Today, we are honored to be joined by a distinguished board of experts on taxes who will share their insight on tax reform.

I'm so honored to be sitting here with our Ways and Means Committee under the leadership of Mr. [Richard] Neal.  With, our former Chair Mr. [Sander] Levin and our Ranking Member on the subcommittee for this subject, [Rep.] Lloyd Doggett, as well as the other members.

We are all honored to welcome Bruce Bartlett who helped draft the 1981 tax cut while on the staff of Representative Jack Kemp, a hero to many of us here.  Thank you Bruce for coming.  You are both heroes to us here.

Heather Boushey, Executive Director and Chief Economist of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth.  Seth Hanlon, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress.  Chye-Ching Huang, Deputy Director, Federal Tax Policy, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Our members are very eager to hear your wisdom.  With that, I yield back to the Distinguished Ranking Member Mr. [Richard] Neal.

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Leader Pelosi Closing Remarks

Leader Pelosi.  Certainly, Mr. Ranking Member, I'm going to give you the last word.  But I thank you for putting together this very instructive and values based panel.  Thank you Heather Boushey, Seth Hanlon, Chye-Ching Huang and Bruce Bartlett for your words of wisdom.

I think this has been very helpful to us because we see a tax proposal – they call it reform but it is not reform.  We'd like to sit down and work in a bipartisan way for tax reform, for all the reasons that you all mentioned.  But we see a situation that is going to cut taxes for those at the high end, increase the defecit and not produce growth or good-paying jobs.

I just wanted to make sure I understood you correctly, Mr. [Bruce] Bartlett, you said that the trickle-down economics, let me say it another way, these deficits that are created by the tax cuts at the high end do not pay for themselves and that notion is not true and nonsense.

Bruce Barlett.  Yes, that is exactly correct.