{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ContentRecord_id=0439CD25-C82D-4C38-B8D8-E67283609150", "Barrasso: Keep Growing the Economy With Tax Cuts", "2017-11-08", "2017", "2017-11", "Republican", "House", "WY", "John Barrasso", "B001261", "www.barrasso.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "\u201cEvery dollar a family doesn\u2019t have to send to Washington in taxes is a dollar that they can use for something better\u2026It\u2019s another dollar a small business can use to pay its workers more, or reinvest in the business and help to grow the economy in that community.\u201d\r\nClick here to watch Sen. Barrasso\u2019s remarks.\r\nWASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014 Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor on how the Senate has an opportunity to cut taxes in a way that will actually help American families.\r\nExcerpts of Senator Barrasso\u2019s remarks:\r\n\u201cOne year ago, the American people went to the polls \u2013 the American people demanded a change.\r\n\u201cThey demanded a change from eight years of too little economic growth, and too much government control and regulation.\r\n\u201cThe effect was immediate, and the effect was incredible.\r\n\u201cIn the past year, we have gotten a lot of very good news about the American economy.\r\n\u201cRight after the election, businesses became much more optimistic about the direction of our country, and they started hiring.\r\n\u201cLast Friday, we learned that in the United States, we have created more than two million jobs since Election Day 2016.\r\n\u201cRight now we have got the lowest rate of unemployment that we\u2019ve had since the year 2000.\r\n\u201cWe\u2019ve seen the economy grow at more than three percent for the past two quarters.\r\n\u201cConsumer confidence has just reached the highest level in almost 17 years.\r\n\u201cAll of this is happening since President Trump was elected \u2013 and this is very good news for America.\r\n\u201cWe can\u2019t stop now.\r\n\u201cWe have to do all we can to move the path toward a more prosperous country.\r\n\u201cAmericans are optimistic because they know that President Trump is focused on easing the regulations that have held our economy back for the last eight years.\r\n\u201cThe president has signed legislation that we passed in this Congress repealing one after another of the Obama administration\u2019s rules, regulations, and restrictions.\r\n\u201cPresident Trump has issued executive orders cutting back on excessive red tape.\r\n\u201cPresident Trump has appointed very good people to important jobs, who are committing to reining in Washington\u2019s out of control bureaucracy.\r\n\u201cAll of these things are important and critical to keeping our economy growing.\r\n\u201cAnother big part of this is what we\u2019re trying to do now in terms of cutting taxes for the American people that they have been paying.\r\n\u201cHere in the Senate we now have a once in a generation opportunity to cut taxes in a way that will actually help American families.\r\n\u201cWe can help families directly by raising their incomes \u2013 and we can help them indirectly by growing the economy.\r\n\u201cHere\u2019s how we can do both, because that needs to be our goal.\r\n\u201cThe first thing we can do is to give people a raise by doing things like doubling the standard deduction.\r\n\u201cIf we raise the deduction, people keep more of their hard-earned money, and it makes taxes simpler.\r\n\u201cRight now, the standard deduction for a married couple is $12,000.\r\n\u201cTwo-thirds of Americans take that deduction.\r\n\u201cIf we roughly double it, people won\u2019t pay any federal income tax at all on the first $24,000 that they earn.\r\n\u201cThat\u2019s a big cut.\r\n\u201cIt means that a lot more people will decide to take this deduction instead of going through the painstaking process of itemizing their deductions on the tax return.\r\n\u201cThat saves them a lot of time \u2013it saves a lot of headaches, and it saves them the costs of the accountants and the lawyers who have to help people figure out the very complicated taxes in this country.\r\n\u201cSo millions of families will be better off just from this one tax cut alone.\r\n\u201cA second thing that the Republicans are looking to do is to reduce the tax rate for small businesses\u2014the people who are creating jobs all across the country.\r\n\u201cIf someone owns a small business in my home state of Wyoming, she probably ends up paying the taxes on her personal tax return rather than on a separate business tax return.\r\n\u201cIf we cut her tax bill, that\u2019s money that she can then use to give her workers a raise, to hire more people, to create more jobs in our community.\r\n\u201cShe can put money back into the business, and help to grow the economy as well.\r\n\u201cYou know, when you leave people with more money in their pockets, they get to decide how to use that money. What they decide to spend, what they decide to save, what they decide to invest.\r\n\u201cBecause people I believe, are much better at watching their own money, than the government ever is at giving people value for that money.\r\n\u201cSo we want to make sure that tax reform includes a break for small businesses.\r\n\u201cRepublicans also want to bring down the rates that Washington charges other businesses.\r\n\u201cIf we can cut the rate that businesses pay from 35 percent down to 20 percent, that could be an enormous boost to the economy.\r\n\u201cThe economists that look at this say it\u2019s like giving the average American family a $4,000 a year raise.\r\n\u201cThat\u2019s how much the average household\u2019s income, they tell us, would go up.\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s because workers actually bear most of the burden of the taxes that businesses pay.\r\n\u201cNow, Democrats actually think that the money belongs to Washington. It doesn\u2019t\u2014it belongs to the people at home who earn it.\r\n\u201cDemocrats often think that if you give Americans even a single dollar in tax cuts, that you\u2019re taking away Washington\u2019s money. It\u2019s not Washington\u2019s money. The money belongs to the people at home.\r\n\u201cWe know that the exact opposite of what the Democrats believe is true.\r\n\u201cRepublicans know that giving Americans a tax cut is the same as giving them a raise.\r\n\u201cEvery dollar a family doesn\u2019t have to send to Washington in taxes is a dollar that they can use for something better.\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s a dollar that they can use for food, for shelter, for kids, for education \u2013 for the things that matter to that family personally.\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s another dollar a small business can use to pay its workers more, or reinvest in the business and help to grow the economy in that community.\r\n\u201cTax cuts mean that people decide how to spend their own money \u2013 Washington doesn\u2019t decide.\r\n\u201cFamilies know how to use the money much better than Washington ever will.\r\n\u201cAs we debate these issues and ideas with regard to tax relief, we have an exciting opportunity to give the American people a raise, and to give the American economy a boost.\r\n\u201cThis is something that a lot of people have been working on for a long time here in the Senate.\r\n\u201cOver the past six years, the Finance Committee, they have held 70 hearings on how to make our tax code better for all Americans.\r\n\u201cRepublicans are working \u2013 and we\u2019re listening \u2013 to make sure that we get tax reform right that the American people and families need.\r\n\u201cWhen it comes to tax cuts, I believe the more the better.\r\n\u201cThe more people who can get a tax cut, the better.\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s about paychecks. It\u2019s about jobs. It\u2019s about prosperity. It\u2019s about a strong and healthy economy for America.\r\n\u201cThat\u2019s what we as Republicans are committed to. We cannot let this opportunity pass.\u201d\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ContentRecord_id=0439CD25-C82D-4C38-B8D8-E67283609150"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9178239852190018, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}