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Click here to watch Sen. Barrasso’s remarks.

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor on how tax reform will help grow our economy and allow all Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money.

Excerpts of Senator Barrasso’s remarks:

“Ronald Reagan said, ‘Tax reform is the door to a bigger future – a future as big and hopeful and full of heart as the American dream.’

“That’s what we’re aiming at with this plan – a big and hopeful future for all Americans.

“It all starts with increasing the amount of money Americans get to keep in their pockets as a result of their hard-earned paycheck dollars.

“That’s the most important thing.

“That’s what families are concerned about.

“When we cut the amount of money people have to pay in taxes, it’s essentially like giving them a raise.

“We want working people to keep more of their hard-earned money, and one of the ways you can do that is by doubling the standard deduction.

“The current standard deduction is around $12,000 for a couple filing jointly.

“The Republican proposal doubles it –$24,000.

“That means $24,000 of a couple’s income will not be taxed at all.

“Beyond that, we’re going to reduce the number of tax brackets –move people into lower brackets.

“If you used to be in the bracket paying 25 percent –there’s a pretty good chance that a significant amount of your income is going to be moved down to the 12 percent range.

“For most people that’s like getting a pretty big raise when they take a look at their paycheck at the end of the week.

“That’s what Republican tax relief looks like.

“The second thing we want to do is to actually make it a lot simpler for everyone who does their taxes.

“The instructions now that you get from the IRS –the 1040 tax form –are 106 pages long.

“When more people take the standard deduction, they can save a lot of time and not have to go through the 15 worksheets, the 106 pages of instructions.

“We want to cut out a lot of the loopholes, the complicated rules, so that most people will be able to just fill out a form on a single page.

“Think of the hours that that’s going to save families.

“Think of the stress that people won’t have to be living under – wondering if they actually followed the instructions properly.

“There’s a lot of room for us to improve the simplicity of the tax system and the actual challenges that come from filling out the forms.

“The third thing we want to do with the plan is get the economy growing faster.

“It is a direct benefit for American families.

“When you cut taxes on small businesses, they can afford to hire more people.

“Or they can use the extra money to pay their workers more.

“Under the outline that the Republicans released last week, the top rate for most small businesses is going to drop from almost 40 percent down to 25 percent.

“Larger businesses are going to get a tax break, too.

“70 percent of the cost of corporate taxes actually doesn’t get paid by a corporation –it gets paid by the people who work for those businesses.

“If we cut the taxes, more of that money is going to go to the workers through higher wages, better benefits, and more jobs. And businesses can actually lower the prices.

“Senator Isakson was talking about something called repatriation and the money that is taxed for businesses that do some business overseas.

“If we can cut the taxes that they pay on the money that they earn overseas, it means those businesses can bring back that money to the United States and spend it here.

“It makes sure that American tax code ought to be helping American businesses and the American economy – not helping foreign countries.

“Those are all of the things that Republicans are proposing.

“It means more money in the pockets of American workers, it means simpler taxes, and more jobs for American workers.

“I want to address one other thing that I’ve heard over the past couple of days as our plan has come out.

“I’ve heard some members on the other side of the aisle say that under the Republican plan certain people win more than others.

“Under the Republican plan, the goal is that everybody wins. The American economy wins, we have a growing economy, people keep more of their hard-earned money. That’s the goal.

“That’s why the president and Republicans in Congress want to take up tax relief right now, in the first place.

“We want to make taxes fairer, simpler, and lower for everyone.

“There are too many people in Washington right now who want to use America’s tax laws to punish or reward one group of Americans or another.

“Too many people in Washington who want to use this debate over tax reform to stir up conflict and resentment.

“There are some Democrats in this Senate who think that’s good politics – but it is terrible policy, and it’s terrible for the direction of our country and for our economy.

“The tax plan that the Republicans have released this last week does nothing to change who bears the burden of taxes in the country.

“People who have been fortunate, who earn high incomes, will pay their fair share. People who earn less, will pay less.

“That’s how the tax burden is spread today. There is nothing in this plan that changes that.

“We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, we’re getting through the details.

“We’re going to have to figure out things like the exact income levels for each of the tax brackets, and the size of some of the tax credits that families get.

“These are important details—that’s the kind of debate that we’re going to be having.

“I’m so grateful to Senator Hatch and the members of the Finance Committee for all of the hard work they’re going to be putting into this over the next several weeks.

“But of course, I’m going to refer back to the quote from the Treasury Secretary Bill Simon, who said, ‘The nation should have a tax code that looks like someone designed it on purpose.’

“This is our chance, we need to make sure we take full advantage of it.”

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