Providing For Consideration Of Conference Report On S. Con. Res. 21, Concurrent Resolution On The Budget For Fiscal Year 2008

Floor Speech

PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF CONFERENCE REPORT ON S. CON. RES. 21, CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2008 -- (House of Representatives - May 17, 2007)

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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I thank the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Sutton) for yielding me the time, the gentlewoman from Ohio, my friend on the Rules Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to this rule and to the outrageous tax increase conference report that the Democrat majority is bringing to the House floor today.

Mr. Speaker, once again, we will reiterate, the Democrat Party says it's not a tax increase, but if it's not a tax increase, then it's several hundred billion dollars more worth of spending. It's one or the other, because what we see here today is exactly that. They are going to give us the largest single tax increase in the history of this country, and even though they say it's not a tax increase, then it's going to be an outrageous spending spree because they intend to spend more money or have more taxation, and that's why we're opposed to this bill.

I wish I could report to my colleagues that the majority Democrats had seen the downside of their tax-and-spend ways since the House last considered the budget in March, but on the positive side this budget does contain a 1 year Alternative Minimum Tax patch which prevents over 20 million middle class Americans from being slammed by this tax.

And this tax in this budget also represents the largest tax increase in history, not the first anyway, but I'm sorry to report that it's about as good as it gets from here because the massive and irresponsible tax increase included in the House budget would still be the second largest in American history, weighing in at least $217 billion over the next 5 years.

It also contains a trigger that could nearly double it by including increases in taxes in marginal rates, capital gains and dividend taxes, among other tax relief that was provided previously by the Republican majority.

As further evidence that the Democrats continue to ignore their campaign trail promises to demonstrate fiscal discipline, the additional spending envisioned by this plan will trigger an automatic tax hike that will affect every single taxpaying American.

This means that as Democrats continue to implement their true tax-and-spend agenda, important middle class tax relief provisions passed by the Republican majorities of the past, such as the marriage penalty and the child tax credit, will shrink or disappear, raising the Democrats' tax increase right back to the original House-passed level of $400 billion, or restoring it to its historic infamy, which it would truly be, as the largest tax increase in American history.

And if this insatiable appetite for taxing were not enough, Democrats leave themselves enough room in this budget to raise taxes even further to pay for more than $190 million of additional, unfunded spending promises.

This budget also promises and provides for a massive new spending spree by increasing nondefense appropriations by $22 billion over 2007 levels. This is in addition to the $26 billion that they have already proposed to spend outside the normal appropriations process through the omnibus and supplemental legislation that they have forced through the House.

This conference report abandons the emergency set-aside fund included in last year's budget and opens the way for unlimited future spending by dropping any limitation on what can be considered emergency spending. But it has new funds for peanut farmers and spinach growers, so I guess that's a good thing.

But in a surprising bit of consistency, the Democrats do hold true to their pay-for rules and allow the 23 shell reserve funds to spend an additional $190 billion, as soon as appropriate because these will be tax increases that they intend to identify and then pay for.

This irresponsible budget continues to ignore the brewing entitlement crisis and puts off any major reform for at least another 5 years. This is despite the fact that around 77 million baby boomers will be retiring in the near future and will begin collecting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Funding this new spending represents the greatest economic challenge of our era, and it is a challenge that the Democrat budget has chosen to completely ignore while going on their own spending spree everywhere else.

And what's worse, this budget completely shirks its oversight responsibility to root out waste, fraud and abuse in Federal spending by providing only $750 million of reconciliation spending out of an $8.5 trillion Federal budget. This is the legislative equivalent of checking under the seat cushions to pay the Federal Government's rent, and I believe, for one, that the American people deserve better.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, despite these massive tax increases, the Democrats fail to provide a surplus large enough to halt the raid on Social Security, directly contradicting their previous campaign trail promises to do precisely that. This is something that the Republican budget provided a surplus large enough to do starting in the next 5 years, and it did so by controlling, among other things, spending, not raising taxes.

Mr. Speaker, I believe the voters watching this debate on C-SPAN can understand what these tax increases will mean for our economy and for our ability to compete globally. I think that they can see through this charade, and I know that they deserve better than this massive tax increase and spending spree that is on their dime and against the future of our children.

I urge my colleagues to reject this rule and the underlying tax increase.

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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I will be urging my colleagues to defeat the previous question so that I may offer an amendment to the rule, which will stop this Chamber from hiding behind a cheap procedural maneuver invented by former Democrat Majority Leader Dick Gephardt. This rule allows Members to duck the responsibility of taking a vote on raising a limit on a public debt, a painful but necessary exercise of this Chamber's legislative responsibilities.

Because of this rule invented by Democrats, Members who vote for this underlying conference report will also be recorded as voting to raise the public debt. Members need to be aware of this. They need to know exactly what they are voting for.

For a long time, Members on both sides of the aisle have been appalled by this practice. Members of growths as ideologically diverse as the RSC, Blue Dogs and the New Democrat Coalition alike have called for its repeal. It's time for members of the Blue Dogs and New Democrat Coalition to demonstrate the courage of their convictions and end this bait-and-switch practice.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment and extraneous material just prior to the vote on the previous question.

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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, what we are debating here today is the largest tax increase that will take place in American history. As the Republican majority has done for a number of years, we recognize that America needs to be more competitive with the world in cutting taxes, making sure that the budgets, very clearly, help protect this country, help protect the men and women of the United States military. They are doing their daily job in trying to not only protect this country, but to defeat terrorists all around the world.

Today we have an opportunity to stand very clearly, talking about what a budget does. We have heard it's a moral piece of paper. It defines very clearly about what someone's priorities are. Well, we know what those priorities are. They are tax and spend.

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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, the Republican majority a few years ago heard the American people loud and clear that they wanted America to be competitive with the world. We were tired of losing jobs overseas. That is not happening. It has not happened in a couple years. As a matter of fact, there are signs all over this country that say ``workers needed.'' We need more workers in this country. And that comes as a result of the tax cuts that were offered to allow American business, corporations become competitive with the world, an opportunity to attract new capital, to retool our companies here in this country to give us the newest tools and the tool kits that are available.

We have a strong and vibrant economy. We have a strong and vibrant economy because we have people who have money in their own pockets creating jobs. We have some 5 million new jobs just in the last few years, 7 million since 2001, that have been created.

This economy is doing the right thing. It is giving the Americans their own dreams, their dreams to not only have their own homes, the highest level ever of people who own their own homes, but it is also giving America to save for our future because our stock market is back.

Just a few years ago, after 9/11, everybody was worried about their retirement. Big worries. At that time, what did we hear from the Democrat Party? Raise taxes. But that is not what the Republican majority or President Bush did. We cut taxes; we grew our economy. We have a strong and great economy today.

The Republican Party stands forth today on this day in Washington, D.C., to say we will vote against the largest or second largest tax increase in the history of the United States of America.

This budget that comes from the Democrat Party will raise taxes and raise spending. The Republican Party disagrees with that. The Republican Party disagrees with saying that we will have taxpayers who will be without jobs in this country, because we will take away the investment and the opportunity that goes forth to make investment possible to where jobs are available. The Republican Party stands today and says we are opposed to this new bill because of what it does by having all sorts of special accounts, just spending opportunities that sit out there in the future, undefined, but ready to spend money if the money comes in.

We believe that we should have had more responsibility, as we have tried to do for years, to do something responsible about Social Security. But we have heard from the Democrats for the last 6 years, there is nothing wrong with Social Security. There is no problem. Mr. Speaker, we disagree with that. Republicans are going to oppose this today. I ask my Members to join me in defeating the previous question.

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