“It saves people money, it saves them time, it gives them more freedom.”

WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor on how Congress is set to pass a historic tax reform bill that allows Americans to keep more of their hard-earned money.

Excerpts of Senator Barrasso's remarks:

"As I come to the floor, the Senate is approaching one of our most important votes in years.

"The tax relief legislation that we'll be voting on will be great for America, great for the American people, and do a lot for the future of our great country.

"It's been a long process, there's been a lot of discussion, and years of preparation waiting for today's vote.

"The Finance Committee has held over 70 hearings on this subject over the last six years.

"When we were debating it on the floor, we had about 285 amendments offered to this legislation.

"There have been a lot of changes over the past few weeks, to include as many good ideas as possible.

"After all that, it is understandable that there may be some confusion about what the legislation does.

"So I want to speak today about various ways that this legislation is good for hard-working Americans like the people in my home state of Wyoming.

"First, most people are going to pay lower tax rates.

"For a couple who makes between $19,000 and $77,000 a year, their rates are going to drop from 15 percent to 12 percent.

"So a family might see their tax bill drop by more than a thousand dollars - just from this one part of the Republican tax relief plan alone.

"The second thing I want to point out is that this legislation roughly doubles the standard deduction.

"It goes up to $12,000 for a single person who files and $24,000 for a married couple.

"People won't have to pay federal income tax on all of that money.

"If we combine that with the lower rates, that's even more money people are going to be able to keep of their own money instead of having Washington spend it.

"Not only that, their taxes might be a lot simpler to figure come April 15th.

"A lot of people are looking around trying to find deductions that they can take and save a little money on their taxes.

"They gather up receipts, fill out extra forms.

"Under this tax relief plan, they can choose to just take this much higher standard deduction- and make tax filing a whole lot simpler for lots and lots of Americans.

"Today about 70 percent of people who fill out their tax form choose the standard deduction.

"Under this plan, we expect maybe even more that nine out of ten Americans are going to be able to use this simplifying -filling out the tax forms.

"They're going to see it's a really good deal for them.

"Millions of people are going to save money and have an easier time filling out their tax return.

"They won't have to save receipts, and fill out extra forms, and they don't have to worry that they're going to be audited by the IRS for trying to keep more of their hard-earned money.

"They'll be able to keep more of their money and use their time doing something else that they actually enjoy doing.

"That's another way Democrats are trying to confuse people.

"They want people to think that tax relief is somehow taking away options.

"It's expanding the standard deduction that a lot of people already use, and many more people will be able to use it under the Republican plan.

"That brings me to another important point I want to make about this tax relief plan.

"We did work hard to keep a lot of the deductions that are important to some Americans. In some cases, we even made them better.

"For people who still come out ahead by itemizing their deductions, there's another way they can keep more of their money.

"People who still take a deduction if they donate to charity.

"People can still save money on their retirement savings through an IRA or through their retirement plan at work.

"If someone has children, we actually double the tax credit they get to $2,000 per child.

"They don't even have to itemize their taxes to get that $2,000 per child tax credit - it's just a straight tax cut on top of the other cuts that they get under this Republican plan.

"They still get to set up an account to save for their children's education if they like.

"For people who have high medical expenses, this tax relief plan actually saves them even more money on their taxes than the old way.

"Republicans understand that medical costs have gotten out of control in this country.

"There were a lot of policies that the Democrats and President Obama put in place that raised the cost of medical care for people all across the country.

"Republicans are working hard at getting rid of those policies and bringing down the cost of care across the country.

"Until we get that completely done, this tax relief plan makes it easier for people to deduct their higher medical costs.

"Today, someone can get tax relief if their medical expenses are more than 10 percent of their income, under the old law.

"We drop that threshold to 7.5 percent - so more people will qualify.

"That gives people additional relief while we keep working on ways to reduce the cost of care.

"That brings me to another way that this tax relief legislation is going to save a lot of people money.

"The Republican plan effectively repeals, eliminates, the Obamacare individual mandate tax.

"This was the outrageous tax penalty that made Obamacare a mandatory program by sending the IRS after someone if they didn't have Washington-approved health insurance.

"We're eliminating that tax completely.

"In my home state of Wyoming, over 16,000 people ended up being hit with that fine, hit with that tax. Over $6 million collected from the fine people of my state who couldn't afford Obamacare insurance.

"On average, this Obamacare mandate tax is about $700.

"Our legislation says that the tax will in the future be zero.

"It takes Obamacare from being a mandatory program and turning it into a voluntary program.

"More than six million people paid that tax in the United States this past year.

"These people will now get a tax break under the Republicans' plan.

"It doesn't take away anyone's insurance as Democrats have claimed.

"It just says that nobody should have to pay an extra tax just because they decide that overpriced Obamacare insurance isn't right for them.

"So those are just some of the ways that this Republican tax plan legislation is good for Americans.

"It saves people money, it saves them time, it gives them more freedom.

"All together, it's about $1.5 trillion in tax savings over the next 10 years.

"That's money that families, and small businesses, and large employers won't have to send to Washington.

"They can use that money any way they want.

"Last week Nancy Pelosi was talking about this Republican tax relief plan.

"She said: 'This is who they are. This is what they came here to do.'

"She probably meant it as an insult - but she stumbled upon the real difference between Republicans and Democrats like herself.

"Republicans believe in cutting people's taxes, letting people keep more of their hard-earned money because we believe that hard-working Americans should be able to make the decisions about what money they save, spend or invest.

"It's their money. It's not the government's money, which is the way Nancy Pelosi looks at all of this in terms of ways that she can grow the government.

"Republicans look at this and say, how can we give people more freedom?

"That's what this legislation does - it's very simple."

Read this original document at: https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ID=852CB1CC-D8C0-4244-8ABF-7C6FCE3D279A