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Floor Speech
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Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I get it. I think most of us get it. A lot of moms and dads throughout America tonight are going to lie down and try to sleep and not be able to. And when moms and dads throughout America lie down to sleep and can't, more times than not in America today, they are worried about the cost of living. I get that.
These high prices started under President Biden. But that is not why I am here today. I don't want to blame this on anyone. It is what it is. I just know that you shouldn't have to sell blood plasma in America to go to the grocery store. I just know that you ought to be able to afford a home in America as part of the American dream. The costs have gotten way out of hand. When you are having to pay $500,000--if you can get a loan--to buy and live in a refrigerator box behind Outback, something is wrong in our country. And don't get me started on the cost of healthcare and health insurance and all the other daily expenses that moms and dads have.
They are worried, and I understand they are worried. That is why I want to talk for a few minutes, before I talk about Minneapolis-- because I do want to address that--that is why I want to talk for a few minutes about taxes.
I know some may be thinking, you know: Why does Kennedy--Kennedy just talked about the cost of living in America. Why does he want to talk about taxes?
I know people are thinking: I don't like paying taxes.
They are thinking: You know, I would rather have to listen to O.J. jokes for the rest of eternity than to have to pay taxes.
Nobody likes to pay taxes. It is the price we pay to live in a civilized society.
But this year, we have some good news with respect to taxes, and it is a result of changes to our Tax Code--the Presiding Officer knows this well--that we made in the One Big Beautiful Bill.
We are told not to call it the One Big Beautiful Bill anymore. There is a new name for it. But, frankly, I think the American people are smart enough to know what we are talking about no matter what name we give to it.
As a result of the changes that we made, and when I say ``we,'' I don't take any joy in having to point out that this was done with only Republican votes. We tried to entice our Democratic friends to join with us. They chose not to. That is their choice. It is a free country. But the tax changes that we made were made solely with Republican votes, and I am proud of them. And I hope both Republicans and Democrats take advantage of them.
As a result of these tax changes, the American people are going to receive up to $100 billion in tax refunds--$100 billion--not million, $100 billion.
What am I talking about? Many people, as the Presiding Officer knows, who are in the hospitality business are no longer going to have to pay for their 2025 taxes, taxes on tips. Not everybody. I don't want to overstate the case, but many of our people in the hospitality industry who made most of their income from tips, as a result of the changes we made for 2025--``we'' meaning Republicans--are not going to have to pay taxes on a portion of those tips.
Many folks in 2025--not everyone, but many people in 2025 who worked overtime--are not going to have to pay taxes, income taxes, on that overtime. That also is contributing to this $100 billion that is going to be returned to the American people in tax refunds.
In our One Big Beautiful Bill, we also increased the standard deduction. For a two-income household, we increased the standard deduction by $1,500. It is going to mean a lot of money back in people's pockets. The standard deduction for joint filers is now $31,500.
As we were making these tax changes--and we, again, regrettably, did it with only Republican votes. We had to. But as we made these tax changes, we also put in a tax deduction for our seniors. People over 65--not everybody, but many Americans over 65--are going to get a new $6,000 senior reduction.
What else did we do? Well, if you pay State and local taxes, real estate taxes, for example, property taxes, we changed the deduction from $10,000 to $40,000. So that means you have a higher deduction on your taxes. It means your taxes are going to go down.
We increased the child tax credit. It is now $2,200 for every child you have. We increased it by $200 per child. Many folks, again, and I won't overstate the case, but many folks who have borrowed money to buy a car and are paying interest will get to deduct a portion of that interest that they pay on their automobile purchase as a result of the changes we made in the One Big Beautiful Bill. And I could go on about other changes we made for small businesses, one in particular. If you are a sub S corp, subchapter S corporation, or you are a limited partnership or what we call an LLC--in Louisiana, that stands for Louisiana limited liability corporation, which means that you are taxed directly on the income that your small business earns--we made permanent 20 percent reductions or distribution of business income for LLCs and LLPs and sub S corporations.
So if you add all of these tax changes up--and, again, I didn't talk about all of the tax changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill, but if you added the ones up that I talked about, that means an extra $100 billion in people's pockets throughout America, Democrats, Republicans, Independents.
And most people, most people have more money held out of their check than they owe the IRS, and that is not unusual, particularly when we make tax changes. I mention that because this means that $100 billion, people are going to get checks from the Federal Government. They are going to get money back. God bless them. They deserve it.
Now, I have got a couple of tips about how you can get that money back quickly, if you are able to do three things:
If you file early, file your tax returns--if you want your money back as quickly as possible, file your tax returns early.
No. 2, file electronically. I know for some that is a pain. I don't much like it. I like to file the paper return. But some people like to file electronically; some people don't. But if you do file it electronically, you are going to get your money back from the Federal Government more quickly.
The third thing you need to do is to tell the Federal Government that you don't want a paper check; you would like your money deposited directly into your bank account.
If you do those three things: file early, file electronically, and tell the IRS that you want the money sent directly, electronically, into your bank account, then you are likely to get your tax refund within 2 to 3 weeks, your portion of that $100 billion, thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill that Republicans in the House and the Senate passed.
That is going to help a lot in terms of dealing with the cost of living in America, and I am very proud of our effort. Department of Homeland Security
Mr. President, now let me say a word about Minneapolis. There is a lot we know; there is a lot we don't know. I want to talk about three things we do know.
No. 1, the loss of life in Minneapolis was a tragedy, and if you can't admit that, you have a padlock on your heart. It was a tragedy. We don't have all the facts. I know everyone has seen the videos, but the people involved haven't been interviewed. There are a lot of facts we have but a lot of facts we don't have, and I am not going to rush to judge. I am not going to rush to judge.
President Trump has promised a full and thorough and transparent investigation, and I thank him for that. But regardless of what we find out, we all have to concede, we all should concede that the loss of life in Minneapolis was a tragedy, and I am sorry it happened.
No. 2, this is the second thing that I know. You don't have to be Einstein's cousin, you don't have to be a senior at Caltech to know that illegal immigration is illegal. Duh. It is illegal.
And those of us who believe that no one is above the law--we all say we believe that, I believe it--those of us who say that no one is above the law have to concede that people in our country illegally are not above the law either. The law applies to them as well. Our immigration statutes are not second-tier laws. They matter just as much as the other statutes that have been passed by the elected Members of Congress. And just like the other laws, the immigration laws have consequences and should have consequences if you violate them.
Now, so I guess what I am saying is I support enforcement of our immigration laws. Now, how you enforce those laws, how you enforce those laws matters. Those laws, like all laws, have to be enforced in accordance with due process.
Those immigration statutes, like all laws, have to be enforced in accordance with equal protection. Those laws have to be enforced in accordance with a well-known Supreme Court case, 1968, called Terry v. Ohio, which sets forth the standards--reasonable suspicion is the standard chosen by the Supreme Court--by which someone can be stopped and questioned when a law enforcement official doesn't have probable cause.
Terry v. Ohio has to be followed. So No. 1, illegal immigration is illegal. We should enforce our immigration laws, but how we enforce them matters.
Third and final point, you have the right to protest in America. Let me say that again: You have the right to protest in America. You do not have the right to protest violently. And, in fact, violence as you protest undermines the morality of the thing that you are protesting over.
Let me say that again: Violence, if you choose violence when you protest, that undermines the morality of the movement that you say your movement is based upon. Do you know who else understood that? Dr. King. King understood it. Gandhi understood it. Mandela understood it. Violently protesting--not protesting--but violently protesting undermines the morality that you say your cause is built upon. It is also dangerous. It is dangerous, and it is stupid.
It is a 12-piece bucket of stupid because when you protest violently, when you interfere with a cop or an ICE officer, it is not going to end well. It is not.
Under the best of circumstances, these officers are trying to enforce Federal law, and the people with respect to whom they are trying to enforce Federal law are, in most cases--I am not going to say all cases--but in most cases are criminals. Not criminals because they are here illegally, though that, too, is a violation of our law, but criminals because they have violated other laws. In many cases, felonies, and those ICE officials, those cops are scared. They are scared. They are dealing with someone who could be armed, someone who could be dangerous.
So you have got a powder keg, and when protesters choose to protest violently and harass those ICE officials and blow whistles in their ears and block their way and spit in their faces and curse them and curse their children, they are giving off sparks in a powder keg.
And it is not going to end well in many cases.
And the truth of the matter is, it has been my experience in life, most--I am not going to say all--most cops will leave you alone unless you do illegal stuff.
So as we go forward in America and try to enforce our laws in conformity with the U.S. Constitution, as we go forward together in America, and while we are respecting people's constitutional rights, we respect our law enforcement officials who are doing a very difficult job--as we go forward in America today, as the President has promised to have a full and fair and transparent investigation of the tragic loss of life in Minneapolis. I hope we can keep those three things that I think all of us can agree upon in mind.
I am sorry we are at this point, but I believe that our future can be better than our present and certainly than our past.
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