[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 66 (Tuesday, May 6, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H3645]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS SET TO PASS THE PRESIDENT'S ECONOMIC PLAN
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Issa). Pursuant to the order of the
House of January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Weller) is
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
Mr. WELLER. Mr. Speaker, I want to take a moment as I begin my
remarks and talk about an issue that is so important. I first begin by
commending President Bush for his strong leadership on the economy.
While so much of our Nation's attention, in fact attention around the
globe, has been focused on President Bush's successful leadership as
well as the successful efforts of our American men and women to
liberate the oppressed people of Iraq from the brutality of Saddam
Hussein, President Bush and House Republicans have been working to get
this economy moving again. It is so important that we focus attention
today on the economy. Today we are going to have action in the House
Committee on Ways and Means to create jobs and give Americans the
opportunity to go back to work.
Let me tell you why it is important to the people of Illinois. In
Illinois we have 6.6 percent unemployment. Unfortunately in the
district that I represent, an agricultural-industrial district in the
south suburbs of Chicago, our unemployment is actually higher. Grundy
County, the county that is my home county, has almost 12 percent
unemployment; LaSalle has 9.8 percent unemployment; Will County has 7.9
percent unemployment; Bureau, 8.7; Kankakee, 8.5 percent. Clearly we
need to get the economy moving again because it affects folks back
home. The philosophy of what we are going to pursue today is following
the direction the President laid out for us earlier as we work to get
this economy moving again, creating jobs, giving those who are
unemployed the opportunity to get a good-paying job and go back to
work. Our strategy is to put extra money in the pocketbooks of workers
so they can meet their families' needs and raise their take-home pay by
cutting their individual taxes. We want to give business the incentive
to invest in the creation of jobs.
Economists have analyzed the plan that is before us today and they
project that the plan that we will be debating and passing out of the
Committee on Ways and Means and hopefully out of the House this week
with bipartisan support will create 1 million jobs over the next 16
months. Two-thirds of this package benefits individual taxpayers. In
fact, if you pay Federal income taxes, you benefit. We double the child
tax credit, from $600 to $1,000. That benefits 1.1 million families
with children in Illinois. We eliminate effective immediately the
marriage tax penalty. We make effective immediately the Bush individual
rate reductions and expand the lowest tax bracket for low-income
Americans so more low-income Americans will have their taxes lowered in
that new 10 percent tax bracket created for low-income Americans. I
note that we also provide additional alternative minimum tax relief,
one of the consequences of a bad policy we are still living with from
the 1980s. The bottom line is two-thirds of this package benefits
average taxpayers, putting extra money in the pocketbooks of workers
for their families' needs.
We also jump-start the economy by providing incentives for business
to invest, providing for what some people call bonus depreciation, that
others like myself call accelerated depreciation, but allowing business
to deduct at least 50 percent or more this year of the cost of buying a
company car, an office computer, telecommunications or machine tool
equipment, or if they are making their office or business more secure,
investing in security and equipment, they would be able to recover the
cost of that much more quickly. When you think about it, when you
encourage a business to buy a company car, there is an autoworker in
Chicago or the south suburbs whose job is created. We also allow
companies losing money this year to go back and recover some revenue
and capital from previous years so they have capital to invest in the
creation of jobs.
And due to the President's leadership, we work to provide assistance
and relief for those who invest for their retirement. Today, 84 million
taxpayers are stockholders. That is over half of American households.
Many are senior citizens who have saved for their retirement. Today
they are taxed twice on their dividends from their stock holdings. That
is not right. It is not fair. I realize my Democratic friends think
that is okay because they want to keep the money here in Washington and
they think they can spend it better than these stockholders can. The
President says we should eliminate that double taxation. We make a big
step with the proposal before us today by equalizing the tax treatment
between capital gains and stock dividends. Those in the 10 and 15
percent bracket will only pay a 5 percent tax rate. Those in the higher
brackets will pay 15. This is a good plan. It puts extra money in the
pocketbooks of consumers as well as encourages businesses to invest.
I want to draw attention to one issue which I have been so involved
in, which is a key part of the plan that is going to be debated and
passed out of the Committee on Ways and Means today, and that is the
issue of the marriage tax penalty. There are 42 million married working
couples, like Jose and Magdalena Castillo of Joliet, Illinois, two
laborers, and, of course, their children Eduardo and Carolina. They
live in Joliet, Illinois. They work hard for their living. They benefit
from this plan today. When we worked 2 years ago to pass legislation to
eliminate the marriage tax penalty because of the rules in the other
body, we had to phase it in. Today we are going to pass legislation to
make marriage tax penalty relief effective this year. It is wrong to
tax marriage. We benefit the Castillo family by eliminating the
marriage tax penalty this year. When you think about it, that is $1,400
they can spend in Joliet, Illinois.
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