Todd Young Spars With Dems After Blocking Bill To Allow Tax Deductions For Gambling Losses

Forbes Breaking News

During remarks on the Senate floor Thursday, Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) debated Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) over a bill on gambling tax deductions.

Transcript

00:00Nevada. Thank you, Madam President. The World Series of Poker is currently underway in my

00:09hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada, where tens of thousands of Americans converge around

00:15one of the largest and most prestigious gaming events across the globe. This world-renowned

00:23tournament and the visitors who flock to Nevada to witness it helped drive my state's economy.

00:30Anyone who's ever heard of Las Vegas knows that our gaming industry is a massive contributor to our

00:37state GDP. Unfortunately, tucked into Republicans' tax bill was a provision that puts the industry at

00:47risk, not just in Nevada, but across the country. Until last week, the law of the land was that

00:54gamblers could deduct 100% of their losses from their annual taxes. For example, if a gambler

01:02won $500,000 and lost $500,000 in a year, that gambler would be able to deduct $500 from their

01:11taxes and break even. But under the new law that was recently passed by the Republicans and signed

01:19into law by the president, gamblers will only be able to deduct 90% of their losses on their annual

01:28taxes. So that same taxpayer would now have $50,000 in taxable income, even though they lost everything

01:37they won that year. They'd literally be paying taxes on money they don't have. This makes no sense.

01:48And it will do irreparable harm to our country's gaming industry if it takes effect, especially in

01:54Nevada. It will disincentivize professional gamblers like players at the World Series of

02:00Poker from doing what they do best and contributing to our economy. It will move major events that drive

02:08our economy offshore and push wagering into illegal markets. And it could push tourists who come to

02:16Vegas, excuse me, it could punish tourists who come to Vegas to win big. Let me be clear.

02:23The Republican tax bill is full of provisions that are bad for Nevada and this country. That's why I

02:31didn't vote for it. And while it will take years to undo the damage that bill will cause, this ridiculous

02:38gaming tax is something we can fix today. That's largely because this provision being included in that

02:46tax bill was a result of Republicans haphazardly inventing new budget rules to ram their debt

02:55busting bill through Congress. These new rules they made up forced them to make changes to existing

03:03policy, even if it made that policy worse for Americans. And that's what happened here. Nobody

03:10thinks this is a good idea. And I'm not sure many of my Republican colleagues even knew this was

03:16in the bill that they passed. So I am proposing a simple solution, which is a return to the previous

03:24policy. My legislation would allow taxpayers to once again deduct 100% of their losses from their yearly

03:32taxes. We must make this fix. Nevadans take pride in our gaming industry. And the current law could cause

03:40serious damage to my state and to our country as a whole. So, Madam President, I ask unanimous

03:48consent that notwithstanding Rule 22, as if in legislative session, the Finance Committee be

03:55discharged from further consideration of S. 2230, and the Senate proceed to its immediate

04:01consideration. I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and that

04:06the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

04:10Madam President, as my distinguished colleague is very much aware, a number of important and impactful

04:31provisions from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act were challenged and unfortunately stricken during bird

04:39bird challenges. There are also a number of provisions that had to be written in a very specific way to

04:45comply with these bird rules. The underlying bill is an effort to fix one of those instances, and I'm

04:52supportive of this policy change. I want to make that clear. Another provision that was

04:58unfortunately not included in the final bill as a result of the bird rules was an exemption for

05:04qualified religious institutions from the excise tax on investment income of certain private colleges

05:12and universities, also known as the university endowment tax. The qualified religious institution

05:20provision would exempt any institution that, in short, is longstanding and has substantive ties to a

05:28religious organization. Religious institutions have served a very important purpose in our country

05:34throughout our history and have, by and large, not been offenders of the woke and DEI problems rampant

05:42at many other major universities with large endowments. As long as my Democratic colleagues are keen on fixing

05:49provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that were the result of this bird process, I think it's only fair that we fix

05:57this one as well. Again, I strongly support the underlying bill, but we'll have to object unless you can agree to my request.

06:06Accordingly, I ask that the senator modify her request to include my amendment, which is at the desk,

06:15that the amendment be considered and agreed to, the bill as amended be considered read a third time and passed,

06:21and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

06:28Is there an objection to the modification?

06:29There has been a right to object, Madam President.

06:32Senator from Morgan.

06:33Madam President, I want everybody to understand what is going on here on the floor of the Senate.

06:41Last week, the Republicans passed a gigantic bill full of massive cuts to health care and food assistance,

06:52as well as huge tax handouts to big corporations and the ultra-wealthy.

06:59It also included a lot of smaller-scale policies that didn't get a lot of notice.

07:05And in a lot of cases, they were just half-baked, poorly written, and now I see Republican senators

07:15walking all over the Capitol saying they didn't even know anything about this policy and this process.

07:25Now, the Republican bill is full of special carve-outs for some groups, new taxes on others.

07:32The fact is, when you rush a process like this, this way, and cram in all of these policies that you

07:41haven't really thought about, you risk some consequences for people back home.

07:47And that is what is going on here in this attempt by our colleague to pass this special tax carve-out

07:54for one institution, just one, in its home state.

08:01Now, Finance Committee's Democratic staff already litigated this issue in bipartisan meetings with the

08:09Parliamentarian. We knocked this proposal out of the Republican bill specifically, specifically for one reason.

08:18It's a special carve-out. And it's plain and simple. That's what's going on.

08:25My own view is, if my Republican colleagues want to exempt their home state colleges and universities

08:34from the endowment tax, they shouldn't have passed this deeply flawed bill in the first place.

08:41So I strongly support our colleague from Nevada's efforts. I oppose the amendment proposed by our

08:48Finance Committee colleague, Senator Young. And I close by way of saying it's just not right to give a

08:57special home state tax carve-out a free ride on an entirely separate proposal. Therefore, I object.

09:11I object. It's understandable that my colleagues would want to characterize this eminently reasonable

09:26request as something that is a parochial nature. I will say, however, that when we advance the largest

09:36tax cut for middle- and working-class Americans in American history, when we advance this broader

09:43initiative to make Medicaid more sustainable for all Americans and take Medicaid back to its original

09:50purpose, when we invested critical resources in our military at a time when the world is not becoming

09:56less dangerous, it's becoming more dangerous, when we beefed up border security, we also thought it

10:03right and proper to ensure that our religious institutions were cared for, that we continued to incentivize

10:13their critical investments in education and other important causes. And unfortunately, it was through

10:22a democratic bird process. It was a partisan effort to initiate a process to strip out the provisions that

10:31would have exempted religious institutions from a tax that should not be applied to them. So I seek, Madam President,

10:41I seek an exemption on behalf of all these religious institutions across the country that are broadly

10:49supported at the same time that I seek relief for the senator in Nevada in the interests of her state

10:59state for gambling purposes. Thank you. The objection is heard.

11:11Senator from Nevada. Thank you. I have to say it is a shame that we cannot pass

11:17this common sense fix S2230 because Republicans want to weigh it down with unrelated measures that they

11:27voted to support. Now, I appreciate my colleague from Indiana and I hope we can work because I know he supports

11:35S2230 to try to get this passed and fix this. This is something that my understanding is many Republicans,

11:42along with Democrats, did not even know it was part of that process. And I hope we can. But I hope it doesn't get caught

11:48in this constant churn now that Republicans, when they voted for a bill, they're trying to undo some of

11:58those votes because of things they didn't like in the bill. They didn't like it. They should have voted

12:03against the bill. It really is doing a disservice to so many across the country. And right now,

12:12it's not just a unique thing for Nevada. This is gaming. Gaming exists across the country.

12:18Almost in every state. There are so many people that are going to be impacted by this. And it just

12:25does not make sense. This is a Republican piece of legislation that is actually causing people to pay taxes

12:35on money they lost. It makes no sense. And that's all this is, is try to fix it and put us back to

12:42status quo. And I will say this. And again, I really appreciate my colleague from Indiana, but the Byrd

12:49process is not partisan. It's a Senate process we have. It's a partisan process. Democrats have used in

12:54the past. Republicans have used in the past. It is a Senate process that is part of procedure that we have

13:00here. If, if my colleagues wanted to protect the qualified religious institutions exemption, they

13:07shouldn't have put in the bill they passed, or they should have introduced an amendment to knock it out.

13:11They should have done something to, to show that they were there. Um, so I, I'm hopeful this legislation

13:17that I'm trying to pass on behalf of so many, so many across this country, Americans, that it does not now get

13:25caught up in a Republican loop of trying to protect the very provisions that they voted to support in

13:32that Republican, um, big betrayal bill. So I, I'm disappointed, but I am not done. And I can promise

13:39you this, we'll continue to work to try to get S2230 passed. It is just common sense and it has

13:48bipartisan support here in the Senate. With that, I yield my time.

13:55Senator from Nevada. Thank you. Madam President, I want to start out by thanking my dear friend and

14:02colleague, Senator Cortez Masto, for leading the effort to fix this terrible provision.

14:09I have to say I'm extremely disappointed in what just happened. Senate Republicans are once again

14:14showing that they couldn't care less about the impacts of their new extreme law. Last week, President

14:20Trump signed into law Republicans, disastrous, big, beautiful betrayal, which among all the terrible

14:27cuts to health care, to food assistance and all of the rest, the big, beautiful betrayal and included

14:34a damaging provision that will impose a higher tax burden for people who play games at casinos,

14:41casinos, not just in Nevada, but all around this country and lose money.

14:46So you heard that right. Under Republicans' new law, individuals who play blackjack or poker,

14:52they're on vacation, wherever they're at, any other games at casinos, will now owe taxes to the

14:59government on the money that they lost. That's because Republicans' extreme law placed a new limit

15:07on the amount of gaming losses that Americans can deduct. So what does this actually mean?

15:13It means if someone wins a big jackpot in Las Vegas and then loses that jackpot later on,

15:21they'd still be liable for paying 10% in taxes on gaming income, even though they hadn't brought home

15:27anything. Their loss equaled their win. They had no winnings at all. So how can that be right? How does it

15:36make sense? I don't know. It's Senate Republican math. That's what they seem to use in their big,

15:43beautiful betrayal bill. It's not just bad math. It's bad policy.

15:49So what makes this even worse is that Senate Republicans snuck in this provision and this

15:53terrible bill so that they can collect more money from people so that they can pay for more tax giveaways

15:58to billionaires because this is exactly what's happening and it's shameful. This is going to hurt

16:04people who visit casinos. It's going to hurt Nevada's gaming industry more broadly, which supports nearly

16:10a third of the jobs in our state. It generates billions of dollars for our local economy.

16:19That's why Senator Cortez Mastro and I agree that we must pass our full House Act and eliminate

16:25this new tax burden. I'm extremely disappointed that Washington politicians are refusing to fix the

16:32terrible policy they enacted that's going to hurt my state, our state and our economy. We need to

16:40restore the full wagering loss deduction and bring fairness back to our tax system. And I won't stop

16:48working, won't stop pushing until this gets done. Thank you, Madam President. I yield back.

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