Issue Position: Taxes

Issue Position

Reform the Tax System

Our country is in need of major tax reform. The current tax system is intrusive, complicated, and counterproductive. It is a burden to our economy and it limits our ability to save. Before sweeping Republican tax cuts, the typical American family would have paid more in taxes this year than they would have spent on food, clothing, and shelter combined. Certain taxes such as the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), death tax, and marriage penalty single out certain categories of hardworking Americans for additional taxes. I am in favor of simplifying the current system, cutting tax rates, and providing across-the-board relief for all Americans.

I have been trying to work with my colleagues to pass legislation so that American families get the tax relief they deserve.

AMT

I support the elimination of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), which has the effect of levying a punitive tax on successful capital investments. This tax is unfair because it punishes many middle class Americans who do nothing other than make wise investments with their money. Under these rules of the AMT Americans are forced to pay the IRS additional taxes because of investments that have not been sold and have not even yielded the investor any actual capital gain. The complicated rules of the AMT favor those who know the "tricks of the trade." This means that Americans subject to the AMT, who cannot afford expensive legal advice, end up paying a disproportionate share of this unfair tax.

Tax relief packages passed in 2001, 2003, and 2004 provided for temporary relief from the Alternative Minimum Tax, but the last of these provisions expired at the end of 2005. In 2006 and 2007, Congress passed a temporary "patch" so millions of Americans won't be subject to unfair taxation under the AMT.

In May 2008, I joined 160 of my colleagues in supporting a 2008 AMT patch, without tax increases, along with an extension of many expiring tax relief provisions. Unfortunately, this effort was defeated.

Estate Tax

The Death Tax, also known as the Estate Tax, is an unbalanced provision of our tax code that needs to be eliminated. The tax places too great a burden on hard-working American families and punishes people for investing and saving their money. It taxes the same money multiple times: not only when it is earned, but also when it is bequeathed after someone's death. This strains many small family-owned businesses to the breaking point because bereaved families often cannot afford to pay the Death Tax and keep their businesses viable.

In 2001, President George W. Bush signed H.R. 1836 into law. This bill phased out the Death Tax through 2010. However, the tax will return in 2011 unless we work to remove it permanently. Despite numerous attempts by the House of Representatives to make the repeal permanent, the Democrat-led Senate thwarted these efforts every time.

The effort to permanently repeal the Death Tax has already begun in the 110th Congress. I am a co-sponsor of H.R. 2380, the Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act of 2007, sponsored by Rep. Kenny Hulshof (R-MO).

Fair and National Sales Tax

Instituting a national sales tax is a proposal that would simplify the system, benefit the American economy, and help all Americans. This tax would allow Americans the freedom to determine their own level of taxation through their purchases and would end the complicated tax and audit horror stories that exist under the current system.

In the 110th Congress, I became a cosponsor of H.R. 25, the Fair Tax Act. The Fair Tax Act would repeal the income tax, employment tax, and estate and gift tax, abolish the Internal Revenue Service, and enact a national sales tax.

Through the national sales tax, the government would raise the same amount of revenue that is currently collected from income and other taxes. Additionally, H.R. 25 directs the Treasury to allocate sales tax revenues among (1) the general revenue; (2) the old-age and survivors insurance trust fund; (3) the disability insurance trust fund; (4) the hospital insurance trust fund; and (5) the Federal supplementary medical insurance trust fund. This will ensure that Medicare and Social Security continue to be funded.

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