{"id":50147,"date":"2017-12-22T10:51:48","date_gmt":"2017-12-22T18:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.46.6.243\/?p=50147"},"modified":"2017-12-22T10:51:48","modified_gmt":"2017-12-22T18:51:48","slug":"president-trump-at-signing-of-h-r-1-tax-cuts-and-jobs-bill-act-and-h-r-1370","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=50147","title":{"rendered":"President Trump at Signing of H.R. 1, Tax Cuts and Jobs Bill Act, and H.R. 1370"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Oval Office,  10:45 A.M. EST.  THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, everybody. Thank you very much for being here, and Merry Christmas, Happy New Year. Have great holidays.  We are going to sign some very important things today. One is a continuing resolution that very importantly gives us the right, and we are ordering $4 billion worth of missile defense equipment and missiles themselves. Very important. Top of the line. Best in the world. We make the best military product in the world, and nobody is even close.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7keZTcdouoY\" frameborder=\"0\" gesture=\"media\" allow=\"encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>And so we\u2019re ordering $4 billion worth of missile defense, and that will be done by signing right here and also by notifying the Speaker of the House and President of the Senate, designating the missile defense as emergency defense fund. So it\u2019s $4 billion for that and $700 million for various other military forms of equipment. And I\u2019m very honored to be doing that. Our military has been doing a fantastic job in so many ways, with ISIS. And everything they\u2019re touching lately has been working out. So we\u2019re signing that.<\/p>\n<p>(The document is signed.)<\/p>\n<p>This is the letter to Mitch McConnell and, separately, to Paul Ryan, authorizing that having to do with missile defense. Very important. So that\u2019s being done today, and that\u2019s going to be sent out.<\/p>\n<p>And then, when I watched the news \u2014 as you know, we had the largest tax cuts in our history just approved. And I was going to wait for a formal signing sometime in early January, but then I watched the news this morning and they were all saying, \u201cWill he keep his promise? Will he sign it by Christmas?\u201d You were one. But will he sign it by Christmas?\u201d And I called downstairs, I said, I get it ready; we have to sign it now. We were going to wait until January 7th or 8th and do a big, formal ceremony, but every one of the networks was saying, \u201cWill he keep his promise? Will he sign it before Christmas?\u201d And so I immediately called, I said, let\u2019s get it ready.<\/p>\n<p>As you know, $3.2 trillion in tax cuts for American families, including the doubling of the standard deduction and the doubling of the Child Tax Credit. The typical family of four earning $75,000 will see an income tax cut of more than $2,000 \u2014 many much higher than that \u2014 slashing their tax bill in half. And they\u2019re going to start to see that. Because we\u2019re signing today, they\u2019re going to start to see that in February. The numbers will speak.<\/p>\n<p>One of the big things that happened \u2014 you have some companies. I want to thank AT&#038;T, who actually was the first out of the box, and Boeing, and Sinclair, and Wells Fargo, and Comcast \u2014 even though they own NBC, which is not so nice to the presidency or the President. But Comcast also. They all have made tremendous contributions to their employees and tremendous contributions to spending money on this country because of the tax bill. And they all said it\u2019s because of the tax bill. So they\u2019re making tremendous investments. That means jobs; it means a lot of things. And we\u2019re very happy. So that\u2019s AT&#038;T, Boeing, Sinclair, Wells Fargo, Comcast, and now many other companies who you see. In fact, just this morning, I see three more companies came on.<\/p>\n<p>A friend of mine, Bob Kraft, called me last night, and he said this tax bill is incredible. He owns the New England Patriots, but he\u2019s in the paper business too. And he said, based on this tax bill, he just wanted to let me know that he\u2019s going to buy a big plant in the great state of North Carolina, and he\u2019s going to build a tremendous paper mill there, or paper products plant.<\/p>\n<p>And I\u2019ve had many calls such as that, where people that are entrepreneurs, people in businesses, they\u2019re going out and they\u2019re going to buy, frankly, factories that are closed, abandoned, and now they\u2019re not going to be abandoned any longer. This is having an even bigger impact, faster than I thought.<\/p>\n<p>The corporate tax rate, as you know, will be lowered from 35 to 21 percent. That means that more products will be made in the USA. A lot of things are going to be happening in the USA. We\u2019re going to bring back our companies. They\u2019ve already started coming back. I think they had certain confidence in me and they figured we were going to get this done. But they have already started.<\/p>\n<p>Something very important to me \u2014 the family farmers and small-business owners who lost their business because of the estate tax. Most of them won\u2019t have any estate tax to pay. It will be a great thing for their families. You can leave your farm to your family. You could leave your business, your small business to your family \u2014 not even so small, because the numbers are pretty big here. So they\u2019ll be exempt from having to pay an estate tax, which will be tremendous. They\u2019ll keep their farms and their businesses in the family.<\/p>\n<p>Businesses will be able to deduct 100 percent of the cost of their capital investments in the year the investment is made. That\u2019s called expensing. And to do one-year expensing, I think, is going to be one of the biggest things in the bill, frankly. I think people are going to go out and absolutely go wild over expensing. Bob Kraft mentioned that last night in his telephone call. The fact that they can expense \u2014 do one-year expensing is a fantastic asset.<\/p>\n<p>Historic small-business tax cuts and pass-throughs now are made really, really good for the business owner. They\u2019re hiring people. I see it on television. I\u2019m reading about it all over where people are hiring a lot of people right now to go to work. The small-business tax cut and the pass-throughs are now really incentivizing people.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re going to bring back probably $4 trillion from overseas. Nobody knows the exact number, but it\u2019s massive. It will be over $3 trillion; it could be $5 trillion. But it\u2019s a tremendous amount of money that was caught overseas that the bureaucracy plus the tax laws didn\u2019t allow it to reasonably be brought back into our country. So we think at least $4 trillion is going to be brought back.<\/p>\n<p>And if you look at that, it\u2019s going to be brought back right under the code. This is something that Republicans wanted for years and Democrats wanted for years, and yet it never got done. Who would object to trillions of dollars being brought back into our country? Nobody. But it never got done. Now it\u2019s being done.<\/p>\n<p>And the bottom line is, this is the biggest tax cuts and reform in the history of our country. This is bigger than, actually, President Reagan\u2019s many years ago. I\u2019m very honored by it.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, we have ANWR \u2014 we\u2019re opening up ANWR for drilling. They\u2019ve tried to get that for 40 years. They\u2019ve tried to get that even during the Reagan administration. They could never get it. That alone would be a big bill if that ever happened, but that\u2019s even part of this.<\/p>\n<p>And we have, of course, the individual mandate, which is a very unfair and very unpopular provision, as you know, in Obamacare. Essentially, I think it ultimately leads to the end of Obamacare. Essentially, I think Obamacare is over because of that, and we\u2019re going to come up with something that\u2019s really going to be very good.<\/p>\n<p>But the individual mandate was very unfair because you\u2019re basically saying, pay for something in order not to have to get healthcare. So you\u2019re paying \u2014 you\u2019re paying not to have to have healthcare. It was very unfair. Many people thought it should have been overturned in the Supreme Court. It didn\u2019t quite make it. Almost \u2014 but didn\u2019t quite make it. But now we\u2019re overturning the individual mandate, the most unpopular thing in Obamacare. Very, very unfair.<\/p>\n<p>So this is the bill right here, and we\u2019re very proud of it. It\u2019s going to be a tremendous thing for the American people. It\u2019s going to be fantastic for the economy. It\u2019s going to keep companies from leaving our shores and opening up in other countries. They are very dis-incentivized to do that. There\u2019s not \u2014 a lot of not a sense to do that. You do that, and I don\u2019t think you\u2019re going to be running your company very well.<\/p>\n<p>So what\u2019s happening is we\u2019re going to sign this. This is a little picture of it. It fits nicely in the box. I said, take it out of the box because people have to see.<\/p>\n<p>And all of this \u2014 everything in here \u2014 is really tremendous things for businesses, for people, for the middle class, for workers. And I consider this very much a bill for the middle class and a bill for jobs. And jobs are produced through companies and corporations, and you see that happening. Corporations are literally going wild over this, I think even beyond my expectations, so far beyond my expectations.<\/p>\n<p>So I\u2019ll sign this today rather than having a very big formal ceremony in two weeks when we were going to do it, because I didn\u2019t want you folks to say that I wasn\u2019t keeping my promise. I am keeping my promise. I\u2019m signing it before Christmas. I said that the bill would be on my desk before Christmas, and you are holding me literally to that, so we did a rush job today. It\u2019s not fancy, but it\u2019s the Oval Office. It\u2019s the great Oval Office.<\/p>\n<p>And just to conclude: Our country is doing very well. We\u2019ve tremendously cut regulations. Legislative approvals, for which I\u2019m given no credit in the mainstream media \u2014 we have, I believe, it\u2019s 88, which is number one in the history of our country. Second now is Harry Truman. Harry Truman had more legislative approvals than any other President and \u2014 a record long held. And we beat him on legislative approvals, for which I get no credit.<\/p>\n<p>A lot of people say he needed this because he has had no legislative approvals. Well, if you look at VA Accountability Act and so many other bills having to do with the VA; having to do with the military; having to do with many things \u2014 we have more legislative victories than any other President, not including this. But this is the capper because this is, again, the biggest tax cut, the biggest reform of all time.<\/p>\n<p>So it\u2019s an honor to have you with us, and we will sign this right now. This is something I\u2019m very proud of. Great for our country, great for the American people. Thank you all.<\/p>\n<p>(The bill is signed.)<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: So we won\u2019t do the whole thing, but this is basically what it is. That\u2019s your bill.<\/p>\n<p>And I want to thank some people in particular that aren\u2019t here, because, again, we expected a formal ceremony in two weeks. But Mitch McConnell has been fantastic, worked so hard. He would speak at 3:00 in the morning and 2:00 in the morning. And we would speak whenever we had to speak. But he worked so hard.<\/p>\n<p>And the exact same thing can be said for Paul Ryan. They are very proud of this, and we\u2019re already seeing the results. And as I said long before \u2014 long ahead of schedule. Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, thank you very much.<\/p>\n<p>Orrin Hatch, the Chairman, made a beautiful speech the other day in front of the White House, an absolutely brilliant, beautiful speech. And we appreciated it, and I appreciated it. Hardworking.<\/p>\n<p>Kevin Brady, I don\u2019t think he slept for months. It\u2019s almost like that\u2019s all he did was this.<\/p>\n<p>Mike Enzi, Senator Enzi. Diane Black. Rob Portman \u2014 the group of Rob Portman. Rob worked so hard; so knowledgeable on the subject. Pat Toomey, likewise. Tim Scott, likewise. John Thune, likewise. These people worked so hard. And I don\u2019t know if they\u2019re given the proper credit.<\/p>\n<p>And the whole Senate \u2014 when I say the Senate, unfortunately the Republicans in the Senate. Democrats don\u2019t like tax cuts. They want to raise your taxes; they don\u2019t want to lower your taxes. They want to raise your taxes, and they want to spend money foolishly on things that we don\u2019t need, in many cases.<\/p>\n<p>So we\u2019re cutting taxes, we\u2019re taking care of our military, and we\u2019re taking care of people. And we\u2019re really doing a job on jobs.<\/p>\n<p>So these folks have been so fantastic that I had to call them up \u2014 and plenty of others, believe me. Republicans in the House and Republicans in the Senate have been incredible. So this is what we get. We had it, it was set to go. As soon as I get back from Christmas, where we\u2019ll be working in Florida \u2014 I\u2019ll be working very hard during that Christmas because we have many things we\u2019re talking about, including North Korea, including a lot of things happening in the Middle East, as you know.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve made tremendous strides \u2014 obviously in Syria, with ISIS. We\u2019ve taken back virtually all of the caliphate, all of the land. Same thing in Iraq. And we\u2019re making tremendous strides \u2014 it\u2019s sort of the unwritten story right now. But since my speech on Afghanistan, we\u2019re making tremendous progress, tremendous strides. We\u2019ve opened it up and it\u2019s a whole different world in Afghanistan, I can tell you that.<\/p>\n<p>So I\u2019ll be working very hard over the holidays. Again, I want to wish you a very merry Christmas. I have some beautiful pens over here. And because all of these folks are either continuing to work down the road or getting ready to leave \u2014 and I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll be working very hard also \u2014 I think I\u2019m probably going to hand some of them to the press. The media \u2014 would any of the media like any of \u2014 oh, look at these camera guys. But I think we\u2019ll do that. So we have them.<\/p>\n<p>Many of you have worked very hard. Many of you have worked very, very fairly, and we really appreciate that. So here you go folks. You want the box with it, or not? Huh?<\/p>\n<p>Q Mr. President, can you talk a little bit about how much you\u2019ll travel to sell this tax bill?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: I don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to have to travel too much to sell it. I think it\u2019s selling itself. It\u2019s becoming very popular, but I think it will really \u2014 you\u2019ll see something on February 1st, when they open up the paycheck. That\u2019s when you\u2019re going to start to see it. Because by signing it now, it kicks in for this year.<\/p>\n<p>Remember, if we didn\u2019t make a certain date, it wouldn\u2019t kick in until next year; meaning, the following year \u2014 \u201919. And I wasn\u2019t happy with that. So we worked very, very hard to make sure it was this year. Even language originally said the corporate would kick in \u201919, but we didn\u2019t do that. We have it kicking in now, but we had to sign.<\/p>\n<p>So I don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to have to do much selling. I think the corporations that are giving billions and billions of dollars away to their workers \u2014 and many more are coming \u2014 I think that\u2019s really what\u2019s selling this maybe better than anybody could, including myself. But I think come February, when they open their checks and they see, \u201cWow, what happened? I have a lot more money in here\u201d \u2014 I think that\u2019s really going to be something very special.<\/p>\n<p>So have a great holiday, folks. Some of you folks take \u2014 I, in particular, like the boom holders. They were so nice to me the other day, right? (Laughter.) And the cameramen \u2014 and the cameramen.<\/p>\n<p>Q Mr. President, as you mentioned, no Democrats have supported this tax cut legislation. Will they regret it?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: I think the Democrats will really regret \u2014 the Democrats already regret it. You know, they have their typical thing \u2014 \u201cIt\u2019s for the rich.\u201d They know that\u2019s not true. And they\u2019ve been called out on it by the media, actually. But the Democrats very much regret it. They wanted to be a part of it; it just doesn\u2019t work out. But I really do believe \u2014 and I said on social media today \u2014 I really do believe we\u2019re going to have a lot of bipartisan work done, and maybe we start with infrastructure, because I really believe infrastructure can be bipartisan.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve spent $7 trillion in the Middle East, not to mention all of the lives and all of the heartache, and it\u2019s so sad. Seven trillion dollars. It\u2019s time for us to rebuild our country. Thank you very much, everybody.<\/p>\n<p>Q Do you wish you would\u2019ve started with infrastructure at the beginning of this year? Would that have sort of set the tone differently for people working together?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: Infrastructure is the easiest of all. We\u2019re very well on our way. We\u2019ve essentially repealed Obamacare. You know, the individual mandate is a very big factor in this bill, frankly. A lot of people don\u2019t talk about it because the tax code is so important. But infrastructure is by far the easiest. People want it \u2014 Republicans and Democrats. We\u2019re going to have tremendous Democrat support on infrastructure, as you know.<\/p>\n<p>I could have started with infrastructure. I actually wanted to save the easy one for the one down the road. So we\u2019ll be having that done pretty quickly. Thank you all very much.<\/p>\n<p>Q Did you learn anything in this process that you think will help you in 2018?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: You know, one thing I really learned is, I learned, and got to know and became very friendly with, the people in the House, the people in the Senate \u2014 both Republicans and Democrats. When I came, I didn\u2019t know too many. I was very politically active but I didn\u2019t know too many. I think the fact that I\u2019ve become with friends with so many of the names that I just read off, and so many of the senators, so many of the congressmen and women, I think that\u2019s a huge factor. I can call anybody now. I know every one of them very well. And I understand the legislation very well.<\/p>\n<p>So, you know, it\u2019s been a process. It\u2019s been a great process. Really beautiful. But I do believe that the fact that I have gotten to know so many of these people \u2014 and many of these people, I have to say \u2014 not saying all, but I\u2019m saying many of these people are great people that truly love this country. So I think that helps. And I think you\u2019ll see that in this legislation.<\/p>\n<p>Q Any regrets?<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: No.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you very much. Thank you all.<\/p>\n<p>END<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Oval Office, 10:45 A.M. EST. THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, everybody. Thank you very much for being here, and Merry Christmas, Happy New Year. Have great holidays. We are going to sign some very important things today. One is a continuing resolution that very importantly gives us the right, and we are ordering $4 billion [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/taxbillsign.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}