Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. NEAL. I am opposed to the bill in its current form, Mr. Speaker.

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Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I am opposed to this bill in its current form,
and I want to remind colleagues that this amendment to the bill will
not kill the bill, nor will it send it back to committee, and, in fact,
if adopted, we will immediately proceed to final passage.

Mr. Speaker, we are here today debating this faulty effort for one
reason and one reason only: the failure fundamentally to change the Tax
Code.

Now, let me say to my friends, the praise delivered on behalf of Mr.
Camp is well-earned. But I also want to say something today. We all
love to say, ``I hate to say I told you so,'' but we really like to
say, ``I told you so.''

I told you so. The staff would be rich if they took that bet that I
offered not long ago on the very floor of this House.

Now, Mr. Camp, the wily sorcerer of tax policies that he is, he
employed every bit of magic at his disposal to bring forth tax reform.
He put together a great model and, for 3 years, without the glare of
publicity, we actually had an adult conversation between the parties,
principals and the stakeholders, who listened carefully to what
everyone had to say.

Unfortunately, the Republican leadership was not spellbound by the
sorcerer's good deeds. When he was pleased to release his tax proposal,
the leadership of the Republican side said, Blah, blah, blah.

Well, one blah in support of continuing uncertainty for the American
family and for business; two blahs, or a second blah, for cutting
economic growth and business investment; and finally, a third blah to
the lowest worker participation rate in 36 years.

Seven to 8 million Americans still looking for work, but we can't do
tax reform.

The last time we reformed our code, the Internet didn't exist, but we
can't do tax reform.

Economic growth at 2 percent, but we can't do tax reform.

Forty percent of the Business Roundtable's major alliances said this
week they plan on hiring new employees. That means 60 percent don't--
but we can't do tax reform.

Thirteen percent of these companies said they are committing to
investing in buying new equipment, but that means 87 percent are not.

Our inaction on tax reform is harming this economy, and it is not Mr.
Camp's fault. Rather than working on this bill and staying with it,
with wage stagnation, low worker participation rate, depressed business
investment, instead of addressing these problems, we are debating a
bill that, once the President signs it, we will immediately see it as
being outdated, and we are going to start the process all over again,
maybe in just a couple of days.

What we have before us, in terms of process, is the pinnacle of
congressional nonsense. This bill does not incentivize companies to
invest more; no more for research. We are rewarding companies for their
past behavior.

You cannot find any economist with credibility that will suggest that
retroactivity in the Tax Code is sound policy.

Pick up the newspaper and you are going to find very quickly that, as
we released this draft, over that same period of time, more companies
inverted. The sound of the dam breaking is all around us.

Recent reports have stated that the United States stands to lose $2
billion next year alone, and since the first inversion in 1982, we have
lost more than $9 billion. Sadly, these inversions are a part of an
epidemic that started a decade ago.

CRS points out that at least 47 companies have inverted since the
beginning of the last year, 19 inversion deals are still pending, and
14 more are sure to come in the coming year alone.

The Joint Committee on Taxation says now it is costing us $33.6
billion in lost tax revenue because of our inability to deal with
corporate tax inversions.

I understand the argument about tax avoidance versus tax evasion. We
have done a reasonably good job at cracking down on Switzerland and
Liechtenstein and other places, but we need to address this question of
Bermuda and these other tax havens where corporate residents of America
pay their fair share, and those who invert to escape taxes--while,
incidentally, we are engaged militarily across the globe with a
substantial bill--they feel as though they don't have to deliver
anything.

Now, my motion to recommit today is very simple. Those companies that
have inverted cannot take advantage of the very tax benefits that we
are going to vote upon in a few minutes, which, by the way, I favor
extending. If you have inverted, you should not be allowed the same
credits and deductions and exclusions that American businesses who have
stayed here dutifully, respectfully, and with great patriotic fervor
continue to pay.

I don't understand, for the life of me, why Republicans can't support
doing something about corporate tax inversions.

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