OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Conference Report on H.R. 4297, Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005

Date: May 10, 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Taxes


CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 4297, TAX INCREASE PREVENTION AND RECONCILIATION ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - May 10, 2006)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, the first plank of the Contract With America was fiscal responsibility. No political promise has ever been so broken as that one.

Mr. Speaker, this blatantly unfair and grossly irresponsible legislation represents the last gasp of the Republican Party's failed economic policies which have only caused greater disparity in America and driven our Nation into the fiscal ditch over the last 5 1/2 years.

Today, our Republican friends are desperate to pass this conference report because they realize after November the party is over. Make no mistake, Mr. and Mrs. America, about what this legislation means to you. According to the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center, if you are among the 0.02 of households making $1 million a year, you get a tax cut of $42,000. If you are struggling to make ends meet, earning between $10,000-$20,000, you get $2 a year. If you are firmly in the middle with household incomes between $75,000-$100,000, you get about $400 a year, or $4.75 per week, enough to purchase about 3 gallons of gasoline.

Yesterday Republican Senator OLYMPIA SNOWE of Maine stated, ``The preponderance of these revenues will go to upper income people, people who make a million dollars or more. It is a question of priorities.'' Priorities, indeed.

Four months ago congressional Republicans slashed $39 billion from student loans, Medicaid and Medicare and child support enforcement. And today, 5.4 million more Americans live in poverty than when President Bush took office, and 6 million more are without health insurance. Real median household incomes are down $1,670, and still, Republicans want to give millionaires a new Lexus.

This conference report is a continuation of 5 1/2 years of the most irresponsible fiscal policies in the history of our country. I urge my colleagues to vote against this legislation. Stand up for our country, stand up for our children, stand up for our grandchildren. Vote ``no.''

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

http://thomas.loc.gov/

arrow_upward