[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 79 (Monday, June 2, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1092-E1093]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




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

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. DENNIS MOORE

                               of kansas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 22, 2003

  Mr. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my opposition to the 
House-Senate agreement on H.R. 2, the so-called Growth and Jobs Tax 
Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003.
  The only growth this conference report will ensure is the most 
dramatic growth in our national debt in this nation's history. It is 
ironic that as soon as the House votes on this legislation, we will 
adjourn for the Memorial Day District Work Period to allow the Senate 
to rubber stamp an increase in the debt ceiling of almost $1 trillion 
dollars, with no discussion by this House.
  For me, this is not a partisan issue. I voted for the President's 
$1.35 trillion tax cut in 2001 because I believed it was the right 
thing to do. At that time CBO projected our surplus over ten years at 
$5.6 trillion. I still believe it was the right thing to do then. But 
that was then. This is now. We are no longer in revenue surplus mode. 
Now we are in deficit mode. And the $350 billion tax cut passed by 
Congress will now go straight to our bottom line--the $6.4 trillion 
national debt. In fact, the Senate will have to increase the debt limit 
by $984 billion in order to pass this tax cut. This tax cut is being 
paid for with borrowed money. And, every penny of this tax cut will be 
paid for by our children and grandchildren.
  Mr. Speaker, I do not oppose tax cuts. I oppose borrowing money to 
pay for tax cuts.
  We are running the largest deficits in history and compiling a debt 
whose interest payment consumes almost 18 percent of every tax dollar 
collected. I call this a ``debt tax'' and this is the only tax that can 
never be repealed.
  The debt tax costs our country $1 billion per day and accounts for 
one of the largest expenditures by our government, third only to Social 
Security and national defense. And I submit that by passing this bill, 
we will be passing the largest tax increase--in the form of the debt 
tax--in history.
  The best way to ensure that we, as well as our children and our 
grandchildren, are all

[[Page E1093]]

overtaxed for the rest of our lives, is to keep borrowing money and 
running up our debt. Our children will be forced to pay ever higher 
taxes just to pay the increasing interest on the debt we will incur 
today. Under the majority's budget, the debt tax will consume more than 
twenty percent of taxes just to pay interest on our national debt by 
the end of the decade.
  It is irresponsible for us to pass a tax cut for ourselves today that 
leaves the bill to our children and grandchildren in the form of a 
crushing national debt.
  In his State of the Union Address, President Bush told us, ``This 
country has many problems. We will not deny, we will not ignore, we 
will not pass along our problems to other Congresses, to other 
presidents and other generations.'' As a proud grandfather who wants to 
leave a better future for my grandchildren, I enthusiastically 
applauded that statement. Unfortunately, our current budget policies 
and this growth plan will only grow our national debt and pass the bill 
on to future generations.
  With respect to this bill being a jobs plan, I submit that in its 
zeal to pass a tax cut, any tax cut that adheres to an arbitrary 
number, the majority has crafted a bill guaranteed to cost us jobs in 
the future.
  Mr. Speaker, this bill contains so many gimmicks, with phase-ins and 
phase-outs, that it defies comprehension and makes it impossible for 
any responsible business or individual to plan for the future. For 
example, this bill helps married individuals and families by expanding 
the lower bracket, increasing the child tax credit and eliminating the 
marriage penalty--but only for 2 years. But all of these good policies 
(many of which I have supported in the past) will revert back to 
current law in 2005. It helps businesses expand, grow and create jobs 
by increasing the code's expensing and depreciation provisions--but 
these good, pro jobs policies disappear in 2004 and 2005, respectively.
  ``Why?'' you ask, do these pro-family and pro-jobs provisions 
disappear after 1 or 2 years? To make room for a proposal that does 
nothing to create jobs--an ill-conceived dividend reduction proposal 
that will only concentrate capital in the hands of shareholders without 
providing any incentives for businesses to create new jobs.
  I believe that the President's call to eliminate the so-called double 
taxation of dividends is a goal toward which we should all work; 
however, this Congress should consider this proposal in the context of 
broad individual and corporate tax reform after we've gotten our fiscal 
house in order. I urge my colleagues to vote against this tax proposal 
and instead work together on a bipartisan basis to achieve true tax 
reform, reduction and simplification in the context of a new economic 
plan to get our country moving again.

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