Conference Report on H.R. 4520, American Jobs Creation Act of 2004

CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 4520, AMERICAN JOBS CREATION ACT OF 2004 -- (House of Representatives - October 07, 2004)

Mr. REYNOLDS. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 830 and ask for its immediate consideration.

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Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, a new report indicates that 275 giant, multinational corporations have been paying taxes over the last 3 years at an effective rate which is actually less than the marginal rate, for a family making $35,000 a year. Over this same period, eighty-two companies paid zero or they got a refund in federal income taxes in at least 1 of these 3 years. These giant, multinational corporations are paying less than an insurance agency on East 7th in Austin, Texas; they are paying less than a used car dealer on South 23rd Street in McAllen, Texas or a cafe on Cage in Pham, Texas. They are paying less than hardworking families across this country trying to make a go of it, but having to bear much more than their fair share of the Federal tax load.

But as if that were not outrageous enough, tonight, this Congress is about to pour more largess on those same multinationals that are not paying their fair share.

Let me give some specific examples. Exxon Mobil down in Texas: Exxon Mobil received $4.3 billion in corporate tax subsidies over the last 3 years, yet they stand to share in something like ten times that much in this bill. About a third of the cost of this $140 billion corporate tax bonanza will reward companies like Exxon Mobil for moving more jobs overseas.

Of course, they are a key part of the lobbying coalition that produced this bill. And at the top of the list of that lobbying coalition is General Electric. General Electric has done pretty well under the federal tax system. They have had profits of nearly $12 billion over a 3-year period. In 2002, it paid zero federal income taxes. Instead, it got $33 million back in a refund check, a little bigger than that small business or that family with $35,000 a year is likely to get when their refund comes, if it does. But General Electric has added new meaning to their motto "We bring good things to life." In this bill those "good things" are billions in tax breaks for GE-the top recipient of tax benefits from this bill.

One after another these multinationals are being rewarded in a bad corporate grab bag bill that is being pushed through here at the last minute. What is happening here gives new meaning to Leona Helmsley's infamous comment that "only little people pay taxes." The "little people" of America are the ones being left to pay the taxes when bills like this are passed that allow those at the top to dodge their fair share of taxes.

In addition, these same corporations will use the benefits that they get out of this bill to just export more jobs overseas. There are 24 separate provisions in this bill that deal with offshore operations by multinationals.

We have, therefore, a bill that is tragic in both its gross size and in its encouraging even more jobs to be shipped abroad. It outrageously shifts yet more of the tax burden for our national security and our homeland security to the small businesses across America that are the focus for growth in our economy and to the working families of America that cannot hire a bevy of lobbyists and a fleet of limousines to come to Washington and do the things that are necessary to get the kind of special treatment that is being rewarded here tonight.

And there is another great example. The $10 billion "buyout", as they call it, of tobacco farmers. Yes, it is a buyout that does not buy them out of anything, since they can keep producing just as much poison as they were before they were bailed out, which is what this bill really represents. The true effect of the bill is to reward big tobacco with cheaper tobacco with which to entice and addict even more of our children.

With one horrible giveaway provision after another, this bill must be flavored before it can be swallowed. For the folks in Texas and several other States that flavoring is a short 2 years in which they can deduct their sales taxes. I am all for that; I have voted to make such deductibility permanent. But when somebody is putting a dollar in one's hand, you need to consider whether they are swiping the wallet out of your back pocket. And that is exactly what this bill does. It is a very very high price we are asked to pay for too modest of a benefit.

Indeed, this is the very kind of bill that causes Americans to become cynical about the legislative process and to feel their government is failing them because tonight it certainly is.

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