Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2007
Floor Speech
TAX INCREASE PREVENTION ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - December 19, 2007)
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Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. I yield myself 1 minute, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker, my friend, the gentleman from New York, said the Republicans are blamed for this and the Republicans are blamed for that, and the Republicans are blamed for this. Let's make it clear. They ought to be blamed for this. It is the Republicans in the Senate, it's the Republicans in the House, and it's the Republican at the White House that have caused this moment. They want to borrow the money. They talk about finding common ground. The easiest loophole to close that I have been part of in the last 19 years is the one that we've offered on this floor for wealthy hedge fund managers who hide money on the island nations to avoid taxes. We're asking them to pay for a middle-class tax cut for 23 million people.
Let me repeat: The Republicans in the House, the Republicans in the Senate, and the Republican at the White House, they have all opposed that measure. That's why we're here today at this moment to get this done.
It has been their intransigence and their unyielding position on insisting that this money be borrowed when the minority has had its day in this House of Representatives. That's why we're here, and that ought to be eminently clear to the people that are watching today.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, let me clear up what the gentleman said as the Democrat he quoted previously. They have decided to borrow the money for Iraq, almost all $800 billion of it on the Republican side, $800 billion.
Madam Speaker, at this time I yield 1 minute to a leader in the Blue Dog Coalition, a friend, and on this issue in particular I think a voice of great reason, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Boyd).
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Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, there isn't an economist in this town who would argue that the reason that the Federal deficit and debt has exploded is because of earmarks.
With that, I'd like to introduce the gentleman from Arkansas, a leader in the Blue Dog Coalition and a champion on the AMT issue, the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Ross) for 1 minute.
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Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, I'm here in reluctant support of this legislation. In this process of governing, you oftentimes reach a difficult intersection. Sometimes you do not have the luxury of either supporting a bill you like or opposing a bill that you don't like. Sometimes you have to support a bill that you do not like simply because it has to be done. And that is the crossroads at which we find ourselves today.
We have sent to the Senate what was possibly the easiest of offsets: closing a loophole so that wealthy hedge fund managers cannot hide money in offshore accounts. But the Senate minority joined by the President and a group here in the House of Representatives have rejected on theological grounds any provision that raises revenue.
Some 160,000 troops are in Iraq, 26,000 in Afghanistan, and at some point we're going to have to pay for these wars. We are borrowing $2 billion every 7 days to fund the war in Iraq, and that's a bill our children and grandchildren will have to pay. And yet, and yet, we cannot ask the hedge fund managers to stop hiding money in offshore accounts. That's what this debate is about and has been. They are hiding money, scheming to avoid taxes in offshore accounts.
I support this bill in front of us today. We need to protect 23 million working families from being hit by higher taxes via the alternative minimum tax. But without fiscal responsibility here, and we've abandoned it when it comes to the alternative minimum tax and closing down an offshore tax haven, we have little choice.
Madam Speaker, I urge adoption of the resolution.
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