{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/king-introduces-motion-to-instruct-tax-bill-conferees-to-return-deficit-neutral-final-conference-report", "King Introduces Motion to Instruct Tax Bill Conferees to Return Deficit-Neutral Final Conference Report", "2017-12-06", "2017", "2017-12", "Independent", "House", "ME", "Angus King", "K000383", "www.king.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "King Introduces Motion to Instruct Tax Bill Conferees to Return Deficit-Neutral Final Conference Report\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\u201cIt\u2019s unethical, what we\u2019re doing.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tWednesday, December 6, 2017\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) introduced a motion to instruct members of the bicameral conference committee on tax reform to return a final conference report that does not increase the federal budget deficit for the period of FY 2018 through FY 2027. He spoke on the Senate floor in support of the motion, which was defeated by a vote of 48 to 50. Excerpts from the speech are below:\r\n\u201cWe are headed into literally uncharted territory with regard to our national debt\u2026 It is a threat to this country. It\u2019s a threat to our national security. It\u2019s a threat to every man, woman and especially child, because they\u2019re the people that are going to have to be paying this debt.\r\n\u201cThe bill that was passed in the dead of night early Saturday morning adds $1.5 trillion to that debt\u2026We\u2019re adding to the debt at a time of low unemployment, enormous growth in the stock market and a relatively strong economy. Not perfect by any means, but compared with where we were 5 or 6 years ago, we\u2019re in positive territory on the economy. That\u2019s when you should pay down debt, not add to it unnecessarily. If we were in a crisis, if we were in a recession, if we were in a conflict that required immediate mobilization, that\u2019s when you want to add to the debt.\r\n\u201cThat\u2019s what you borrow for \u2013 we\u2019re borrowing to pay park rangers salaries. We\u2019re borrowing to do the ordinary operation of government, and now we\u2019re borrowing to give major tax cuts in a time of relatively positive economic growth. And I know it\u2019s not as it should be, and as high as we want it to be, but this bill that we passed that\u2019s going to add to the debt isn\u2019t going to do much of anything to assist us with growth. The analysis of the Joint Taxation Committee is that it will add 0.8% to GDP growth in 10 years. That\u2019s almost immeasurable\u2026it doesn\u2019t come close, by the way, to paying for itself\u2026\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s unethical, what we\u2019re doing. If 5-year-olds knew what we were doing and could vote, we would all be out of a job because they are the ones who are going to have to pay this bill\u2026it\u2019s unconscionable. It\u2019s unnecessary. If indeed we were going to expand the economy 3% or 4% a year, and everyone says that\u2019s what we\u2019re going for\u2026but we\u2019re talking about 0.8% over 10 years. Not per year, over 10 years. So my motion is very, very simple: don\u2019t come back with a bill that adds to the deficit.\r\n\u201cAnd there\u2019s lots of ways we can do tax reform\u2026without hammering the deficit. In fact, I understand as of this morning, we improve the finances of this bill by mistake to the tune of $389 billion. A mistake in the bill that we passed because we did it so fast that nobody knew what was in it. I have a new rule: the faster a bill goes through the United States Congress, the worse it is. And I think that\u2019s what we\u2019ve seen in this case.\r\n\u201cWe can deal with tax reform. We can increase our competitiveness. We can get our taxes aligned, particularly our business taxes, with the rest of the world without loading this debt onto our children. A tax cut when all you\u2019re doing is borrowing to fill the hole is not a cut. It is a shift of the tax from you to your kids\u2026\r\n\u201cI think one of the questions we have to ask is\u2026what are companies going to do with this newfound income when the taxes are cut dramatically\u2026is that money going to go into new plants and equipment? Is it going to go into wages? Is it going to increase people\u2019s wages\u2026 or is going to go into stock buybacks, which raise the value of the stock. That\u2019s great for the owners, but doesn\u2019t do a thing for the workers. And it doesn\u2019t do much for the United States economy.\r\n\u201cSo again, my motion couldn\u2019t be more straightforward and simple. Work on the tax bill in conference \u2013 I think you\u2019re going to have a hard time making a good bill out of it \u2013 but whatever you do, come back with something that\u2019s deficit neutral. And by the way, that\u2019s where this discussion started. Last January, the leadership in both Houses, in both parties, was talking about deficit-neutral tax reform. And somewhere along the way, it became: \u2018Let\u2019s break the bank. Let\u2019s add new debt to our kids. Let\u2019s create a situation where we\u2019re not going to have any slack when we need it.\u2019 No business would run this way, and it\u2019s wrong for us to try to run the country this way\u2026\u201d\r\nDuring his speech, Sen. King used Chart 1 to walk through the history of our national debt, which has ebbed and flowed based on economic circumstances and U.S. participation in armed conflicts. He specifically noted that following a large spike of debt to fund World War II, the Greatest Generation paid down the debt going into the 1970s.\r\nSenator King\u2019s motion would have given nonbinding instructions to the conferees, asking them to return a final conference report that is deficit neutral over a 10-year period. This is his most recent push for a deficit-neutral approach on the recent tax legislation; prior to the Senate\u2019s passage of the tax bill last week, Senator King offered an amendment to refer the tax bill to the Finance Committee with instructions to create a deficit-neutral proposal. The amendment failed along party lines following more than an hour of debate and an unusually long voting period.\r\nSenator King, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, has consistently called for a responsible, balanced and long-term approach to addressing our national debt and deficit. In 2016, he was named a \u201cFiscal Hero\u201d by the Campaign to Fix the Debt, a nonpartisan movement to put America on a better fiscal and economic path.\u00a0\r\nChart 1: Federal Debt Held by the Public as a Percentage of Gross Domestic Product", 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.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/king-introduces-motion-to-instruct-tax-bill-conferees-to-return-deficit-neutral-final-conference-report"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7539328653365374, "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"}