Providing for Consideration of Senate Amendment to House Amendment to Senate Amendment to H.R. 4853, Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Authorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. FOXX. I thank my distinguished colleague from California (Mr. Dreier) for yielding time.

Mr. Speaker, I first want to make it clear I am opposed to allowing tax increases to go into effect on January 1. However, I am also opposed to this rule and the underlying bill.

It's very interesting to hear our colleagues on the other side of the aisle arguing against the tax bill before us today because of their concerns that we're adding to the deficit. We didn't hear those arguments when they were voting for the trillion-dollar stimulus and all the other trillions they have voted for in the past 4 years. In fact, their stories and those of the President have changed dramatically over the past few days. Mr. Speaker, I would like to put into the Record an article in American Thinker, December 14, ``Tax Cuts Clearly Explained.'' The article does a really good job of explaining the flip-flops on the side of the Democrats.

I want to quote a couple of sentences from it. It says, ``The Republican position was to keep tax rates where they are now and where they've been since 2003. Democrats fought to keep the Bush tax rates only for those making less than $250,000 in a year. That is

curious, since they've been saying for about 10 years that the `Bush tax cuts' went only to the wealthiest Americans. Democrats are arguing to keep something they said never existed.'' So we find our friends again on the other side of the aisle flip-flopping on this issue.

I'd also like to add a couple of more comments from this article. ``As a matter of record, the final Bush tax rates passed Congress in mid 2003, shortly after Republicans retook the Senate. From August 2003 to December 2007, over 8 million net new jobs were created and real GDP grew almost 3 percent per year. At the same time, Federal revenues increased by 2.3 percent of GDP, $785 billion, putting revenues above the average level of 1960 to 2000, the 40 years before Bush. Unemployment fell to 4.4 percent and the deficit fell to 1.2 percent of GDP. Such was the catastrophe of 4 years of Bush's tax rates and Republican-written Federal budgets.

``You will hear that this or that group, the top 2 percent of those who inherit dad's farm, et cetera, does not `deserve' to have its taxes kept at the current rate. There are only two alternatives for where that money goes: the family that earned it or the government. If the family doesn't `deserve' it, does the government?''

It appears from all the comments that our colleagues have made that they believe that the money that the hardworking Americans earn belongs to the government. As a member of the Rules Committee, I have seen up close how the ruling Democrats have violated every promise they made to run an open Congress but have shut out the opportunity to offer amendments.

We should vote down this rule and allow any amendments to be offered.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source