Highway Technical Corrections Act of 2007 - Motion to Proceed - Continued
Floor Speech
HIGHWAY TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS ACT OF 2007--MOTION TO PROCEED--Continued -- (Senate - April 15, 2008)
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Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, my colleagues on this side of the aisle have spoken today about tax issues because today is the day for filing income tax. I think it is appropriate that we remind each other about a lot of tax issues that are very important that we have to decide this year, next year, and the following, or we are going to have the biggest tax increase in the history of the country. We are taking the opportunity on April 15 to talk about those.
When I was chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, I worked to get through a narrowly divided Senate the biggest tax cut in a generation. We reduced income tax rates for individual taxpayers. We created the first ever 10-percent bracket for lower income workers so they didn't have to pay as much tax as they would at the 15-percent bracket on their first dollars earned. We reduced the marriage penalty because we don't think one ought to pay more taxes because they are married. We created a deduction for college tuition. We also passed a deduction for schoolteachers buying supplies for their classrooms. I could go on with a lot of other provisions in those tax bills, but they have all had good economic consequences. We ought to consider that they should not sunset.
Now I and others are at work to make sure this tax relief is extended. If it is allowed to expire, Americans will be hit with the biggest tax increase in history. That is one thing. But it is quite another thing that this is going to happen without a vote of Congress. In other words, on that magic date of sunset, we go back to levels of taxation as they were before January 1, 2001, and we automatically, without a vote of Congress, end up with the biggest tax increase in the history of the country.
People say: Well, we are going to continue existing tax law. They need to be intellectually honest and tell people that when they are doing that, they are going to allow the biggest tax increase in the history of the country.
We can intervene. We need to intervene. It is my goal to intervene. The last thing families need, the last thing small businesses need, the last thing investors need is a tax increase. But that is what will happen this year and in 2010, if Congress doesn't act.
Last week the Senate demonstrated support for extending current law tax relief without offsets, when it voted on energy tax incentives, things that are meant to make the United States more energy efficient and less dependent upon foreign sources of energy. That same approach demonstrated last week, extending current tax law relief without offsets, should rightfully apply to other expiring tax provisions, including the research and development tax credit and the individual tax provisions I have already mentioned. I will be working hard to see that that does happen so taxpayers don't get hit with even higher taxes. I learned a long time ago that you can't raise taxes high enough to satisfy the appetite of Congress to spend money.
Stopping the tax increases that people say we are not voting for, we are only allowing present law, which means the biggest tax increase in the history of the country will happen without a vote of the people, we can do something about it. We ought to do something about it. Stopping these tax increases ought to be a major goal. Maybe taxes should not be lowered. Nobody is talking about lowering taxes. But we ought to keep the present level of taxation, because it has been good for the economy. It has been good for the taxpayers, because we do not see a revolt going on by taxpayers as we have seen in recent years in the Congress.
I yield the floor.
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