American Research and Competitiveness Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this legislation.

H.R. 4438 would add $156 billion to the deficit to provide permanent tax breaks for businesses while doing nothing for the 2.6 million Americans living the constant nightmare of long-term unemployment.

H.R. 4438 does nothing to help low-income working families by permanently extending the earned income tax credit or the child tax credit used by over 100,000 of my constituents and credits that keep millions of Americans out of poverty.

Further, H.R. 4438 does nothing to incentivize businesses to hire hard-to-employ workers via the work opportunity tax credit, to help revitalize distressed communities via the new markets tax credit, to help the elderly donate to charities via the IRA charitable rollover, to create affordable housing via the low-income housing tax credit, to reimburse the 3.7 million teachers the hundreds of dollars a year that they pay out of their own pockets.

In the name of fiscal responsibility, the Republican leadership has justified refusing to help the unemployed and slashing food stamps for poor families, cutting health care and services for seniors and limiting services for foster use.

Even worse, the Republican leadership understands that, as a law, H.R. 4438's failure to pay for its $156 billion price tag will cause automatic cuts to Medicare, to student loans, and to other mandatory safety net programs because the bill violates PAYGO.

I strongly urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this business giveaway.

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