Providing For Consideration Of H.R. 4849, Small Business And Infrastructure Jobs Tax Act Of 2010

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

For 8 years, our Republican colleagues told us that we could borrow our way to greatness. They told us that their tax cuts would pay for themselves. And then, after they drove our country into an economic ditch, some of their own economic experts indicated that, in fact, none of those tax cuts had paid for themselves. They had only driven us deeper into debt. And then as the gentleman from California (Mr. Cardoza) has ably explained, we came forward with a number of proposals that were designed to try to get our economy moving again. And they have worked.

But we also came forward with a commitment to fiscal responsibility that we would pay as we go. And that is precisely what we have just done this past Sunday with the approval of the health care legislation. Not only paid for it, but adopted a proposal that would actually result in many billions of dollars--over a trillion dollars in the second decade--of deficit reduction as a result of our plan.

That brings us to today. Recognizing that small business is the economic engine of our country, we come forward with some specific proposals designed to encourage more economic growth. But we don't do it the old-fashioned Republican way of borrowing all the money. We pay for every dime in this bill. And therein lies their complaint. They always like the benefits that go out; they just don't want to pay for any of them. And so they've come forward today and their principal complaint is a provision in this bill that I authored that deals with tax treaty shopping. Who does that affect? It doesn't affect any company that has its principal headquarters in the United States of America, an American company. It doesn't affect any foreign corporation that has a subsidiary here if they are in one of the many jurisdictions around the world that have a tax treaty--a tax treaty designed to protect American companies from being double-taxed. It doesn't affect them. Even China has a tax treaty. In fact, over 90 percent of the foreign investment in this country comes from companies headquartered in tax treaty countries.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

The only people that it affects are those who have chosen to go to non-tax-treaty countries, mainly tax havens--people that have avoided paying their fair share and are foreign-owned corporations. And those foreign-owned corporations and tax havens now have a voice, in addition to their lobbyists in this Congress, and it's the Republican Party. They are defending those foreign companies that have not paid their fair share and will not approve using resources drawn from them that they have not paid fairly in order to support our small American businesses.

I urge approval of the rule and rejection of the argument that these foreign businesses ought not to have to play by the same rules as American companies.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source