Providing for Consideration of H.R. 3996, Temporary Tax Relief Act of 2007

PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 3996, TEMPORARY TAX RELIEF ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - November 09, 2007)

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Mr. SESSIONS. I appreciate the gentleman from Pasco, Washington, for yielding me the time.

Mr. Speaker, in response to our good friends on the other side, this economy is the greatest economy we have ever had, 130 straight months of economic growth.

I am proud of what we have done. I am proud of what the Republican Party did by cutting taxes. I am proud of what the Republican Party did by making sure this country came back to work. I am proud of the Republican Party for doing the things that President Bush has led us to do.

I know what the Democratic Party is all about. They are all about making sure that we will raise taxes, that we will have more rules and regulations and that we will make sure that we cut off the ability that America has to be competitive with the world. That's what this debate is also about.

I rise with great regret to report to the American people that once again, as I have been forced to do on multiple occasions over the past few months and really during this entire year, to see the Democrat leadership bringing legislation to the House floor that stacks the deck in favor of Big Labor bosses at the American taxpayers' expense to the tune of $2.2 billion, to be exact.

Last night the Democrat Rules Committee voted along party lines to prevent me, a member of the committee, from having the opportunity to raise government revenue while reducing the size of our government by striking a provision unrelated to fixing the AMT. However, it was in the legislation that is before us in the House today.

I find it ironic that as this Congress works to protect American taxpayers from the AMT, a tax that they would pay but were never meant to pay, that the Democrats would include in this bill a provision preventing the IRS from effectively collecting other delinquent taxes, taxes that people were meant to pay but haven't.

In 2004, Congress gave the IRS the ability to utilize the best practices and advantages created by the private sector to address its growing backlog of unpaid debt.

Today, it is estimated that $345 billion of these taxes, unpaid taxes, exist, meaning that every single year the average taxpayer who plays by the rules must pay an average or an extra $2,700 to cover taxes not paid by others.

This new program, which began as a small pilot program that continued to grow and continued to succeed, is estimated to bring in $2.2 billion in the first 10 years alone. Under this agreement, the IRS would get the first 25 cents of every dollar for them to hire new collections professionals, a provision that will have positive compounded effects by helping to bring in even greater amounts of uncollected revenue to the government in the future.

This program, even in its beginning stages and despite numerous attempts by the Democrat majority to kill it before it can succeed, has been a huge success, bringing in over $30 million of uncollected taxes. It has received a 98 percent rating from the IRS for regulatory and procedural accuracy, as well as 100 percent rating for professionalism.

I wish that I could say that I was surprised by the Democrat leadership by allowing politics to triumph over policy or fair procedure. Unfortunately, this is precisely what we have come to expect from the new broken-promises Democrat majority.

I encourage all of my colleagues to vote against this tax increase and this attempt to stack the deck in favor of labor union bosses.

I am opposed to this rule. I am opposed to the underlying legislation.

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