[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 79 (Monday, June 2, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1089]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




APPOINTMENT OF CONFEREES ON H.R. 2, JOBS AND GROWTH RECONCILIATION TAX 
                              ACT OF 2003

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. RICHARD E. NEAL

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 22, 2003

  Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, today, we have two million 
American families struggling with persistent unemployment, we have a 
Treasury which has asked to increase its debt by an amount bigger than 
the entire federal debt of 1980, and a central bank desiring yet 
another interest rate slash to ward off deflation. In the eye of this 
perfect storm, this fiscal catastrophe, we have the Republican answer 
to everything: cut more taxes.
  This $350 billion bill is rife with uncertainty, as the individual 
and family tax breaks are afflicted with two-year expirations. While 
the bill won't inspire much confidence in our economy, it will inspire 
confidence and certainty that our war on tax code complexity has 
officially been lost.
  Along with fiscal sanity, middle-income families have been tossed 
overboard in this Republican tax bill as relief from the alternative 
minimum tax was cut to less than the puny amount either chamber 
originally provided. Hard as it is to believe--the conference agreement 
before us today provides even less relief for middle-income taxpayers 
from the AMT than either the House or Senate bill provided, and for a 
shorter period of time!
  When this bill was originally before the House, the Republican 
Majority bragged about the 10 million American families saved from 
higher taxes by their temporary AMT fix. But under the deal we are 
voting on today, 2005 will bring a tax increase for those 10 million 
families. Let me repeat that, at the end of next year, 10 million more 
American families will actually see a tax increase under this bill.
  As the former Bush aide now heading the CBO stated, ``At the current 
pace, the AMT is on track to replace the ordinary income tax for many 
Americans. The sheer number of taxpayers who are or will be touched by 
the AMT speaks volumes about the pressure on lawmakers to address the 
problem.'' Apparently, that pressure was shrugged off by the Republican 
leaders, and AMT has been pushed off, yet again, to another day.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, let me object to House Republican leaders 
insistence in refusing any reasonable revenue offsets. With corporate 
expatriates dodging $5 billion in US taxes by running offshore, it 
simply defies logic not to collect this money in order to avoid digging 
our deficit hole deeper.
  By refusing to accept the modest Senate language to close the Bermuda 
loophole, the House Republicans have sanctioned this corporate 
misbehavior of choosing profits over patriotism.
  I urge my colleagues to vote down this bill.

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