Permanent Extension of 10% Individual Income Tax Rate Bracket
PERMANENT EXTENSION OF 10-PERCENT INDIVIDUAL INCOME TAX RATE BRACKET -- (House of Representatives - May 13, 2004)
Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 637, I call up the bill (H.R. 4275) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to permanently extend the 10-percent individual income tax rate bracket, and ask for its immediate consideration.
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Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Becerra) for yielding me this time.
Mr. Speaker, before I speak specifically to the issue here, let me offer an opinion just briefly based upon what the gentleman from Florida just said. We have got to pay for this war in Iraq. There ought to be some truth to what we do here. After this election, regardless of who is selected as the next President, it is going to cost another $100 billion at least. That will be pushed off until after the election. So last year it was $60 billion. Earlier this year it was $87 billion. Now as part of the rollout, it is $25 billion. We all know that number is too low. $1 billion a week for Iraq and now more than $1 billion a month for Afghanistan. 135,000 troops in Iraq. They need equipment. We are going to have to increase that base at some point.
The answer here is this: we are going to fight two wars with three tax cuts, and the markets are reflecting it. I appreciate the analogy that was drawn by the gentleman about raising prices, but we are engaged in two wars across the ocean. The Republican Party in American history used to take fiscal prudence as the cornerstone of their existence. Today they take the position that we can cut taxes time and again because at some point we are not going to have to pay.
We are going to have to pay for these two wars, and rather than taking the response that we have in this institution week after week of just simply saying we are going to have another tax cut, there ought to be some truth to what it is that we attempt to do here.
In addition, it is an honor to be on the Committee on Ways and Means in this institution. It is really an honor. Why can these bills not come to the committee to be vetted the way they are supposed to be? Why are these bills brought to the floor around one of the prestigious committees in the Congress? I ask the appropriators who are watching in their offices now what they would do if legislation was brought to the floor that had not been vetted in their subcommittees or that had not been brought to the floor and discussed in the full committee before being brought to the floor in this
institution for a vote. They would reject it. They would be up in arms.
In addition, the other phenomenon that we have witnessed here, Mr. Speaker, which is equally troubling, is that Members who do not even belong to the committee are now brought to the floor for this instantaneous solution to help them through the election cycle. That is not the way that committee is supposed to be run. The people on both sides are well regarded by other Members of this institution, and yet we move right around the process.
The substitute bills that have been offered by the Democratic minority in this House have been fiscally responsible. We would ask that these opportunities be put in place for us to discuss these bills in the committee where they are supposed to be discussed. That is what the Committee on Ways and Means does. And yet they are brought to the floor so that we can get ourselves through the next election cycle. It is an ill considered way to bring legislation to this floor, but most importantly, given the financial realities of Iraq and Afghanistan, it is irresponsible to do what we are doing now week after week.
I would remind people even with this legislation that is on the floor today, very simply, one third of the people through the clawback provisions of the Alternative Minimum Tax will not see any tax relief despite what they are saying today. We have got to deal with that alternative minimum tax issue; and the tax cuts they put in place week after week now, without a lot of thought incidentally, do not speak to the heart of the issue of Alternative Minimum Tax. It costs $600 billion to fix. Let us fix that and give middle-income taxpayers the relief that they need.
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