Annual Budget Debate

Floor Speech

ANNUAL BUDGET DEBATE -- (House of Representatives - March 27, 2007)

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. I thank you so much. I am really appreciative that you have mentioned sales tax deductibility. As the gentleman from Texas knows, that is something that I worked feverishly and diligently to have passed when I came to this body in 2003, restoring that deductibility of sales tax to our Federal income tax filing for those of us who live in non-State income tax States.

Now whether you are from Washington State or from Nevada or from Texas or from Florida or Tennessee, my home State, you have been able to enjoy a sizable deduction. Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, the Democrats, are willing to do away with that as they go about passing the largest tax increase in American history, the single largest tax increase in American history. They are going to do it all in one bill and all with one fell swoop.

You know, as I have listened to the debate on both sides of the aisle gathering around this budget, it has reminded me of something that we have talked about on this floor before, Mr. Speaker, and it is that the budget should reflect the priorities of the people of this great Nation, not the priorities of government.

Mr. Speaker, what we have right before us is a classic liberal elite bureaucratic document. It is all about growing the bureaucracy. It is about power to Washington, D.C., and not power to the people in our districts. It is clear as day. I am really kind of glad that the Democrats have brought this budget forward. It defines so clearly the priorities of our parties.

Are you for the bureaucracy or are you for the people? Are you for tax relief or are you for tax increases? Are you for middle class, hardworking Americans or are you for the liberal elites? Are you for those liberal elites that want to tell you they are smarter than you and they ought to be telling you exactly how to spend your money or are you for the taxpayers that are right now sitting at home at their kitchen table trying to figure out how much they owe the IRS and they are looking at the end of the month coming up and they have more month left over than they have money left in that checking account and it is because they know the government never gets enough of the taxpayers' money?

Mr. Speaker, my constituents know this Federal Government does not have a revenue problem. This Federal Government has a spending problem, and our colleagues across the aisle would be well-served to learn that lesson.

Whether you go back to the New Deal or the Great Society, all these programs that have been put in place and have to be grown and have to be fed, government never gets enough of your money because of this.

Now, in Tennessee, because of all the bookkeeping gimmicks of the Democrats, and they ran on one set of priorities but now they are governing like what they are, the liberal elites, and it is going to cost 2.1 million Tennesseans $2,600 per family. If they want to go vote to raise the taxes on the constituents in their district, have at it. Let them line up and vote to raise the taxes on the people that live in their districts. But the people in my district in Tennessee do not want to pay more in either State or Federal taxes. They want to see their taxes reduced. They want to see the size of government shrink, and they want to see better fiscal management and responsibility of the resources that the government has.

I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding. I look forward to continuing this debate. I look forward to working hard to defeat the Democrats' tax increase which is the single largest tax increase in American history.

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