[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 135 (Friday, December 8, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S11593]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TAX EXTENDER PACKAGE

  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about the tax 
extender package that will be coming over from the House. It is a very 
important measure, one of the last items of business that probably will 
be passed in this session. It is such an important bill. I have to say 
it doesn't have everything we had hoped it would have. But the 
important parts that are included are very important. The sales tax 
deduction--the deductibility of State sales taxes--is a huge item of 
equity for taxpayers in our country.
  As the Presiding Officer knows, there are eight States that do not 
have income taxes. Yet between the years of 1986 and 2004, there was an 
inequity. If a State chose to have State income taxes to raise its 
revenue, their citizens could deduct from their Federal income taxes 
those State income taxes. But if a State didn't have an income tax and 
instead raised its State revenue with State sales taxes, you could not 
deduct the sales taxes on your income tax. It was a huge inequity.
  It is essential that in our country we have the same treatment for 
the people of every State regarding how they pay their State taxes. So 
this bill, the tax extender package, which will be voted on either 
tonight or tomorrow, is that equalizer. It does extend for 2 more years 
the sales tax deduction that would be allowed, just as State income 
taxes are deductible, from your Federal income tax return. We have had 
that opportunity for 2 years--2004 and 2005. This would have it 
available for 2006, this year, and next year, 2007.
  The taxpayers in Texas, Alaska, Florida, Washington State, Nevada, 
South Dakota, Tennessee, and Wyoming would be set to have the penalty 
if this bill does not pass. This is something I have worked on for 
years. Since I came to the Senate, I have tried to equalize this 
inequity. Finally, in 2004, we were able to do that, and now we cannot 
let this equity go. There are many people who have worked to make this 
happen, especially the leaders of the Senate. Senator Frist and Senator 
Reid have been working on this, as I have, for all these years, trying 
to do what is right by our States, as well as the other States that are 
affected in this way. We won that right in 2004, and now we will be 
able to go forward and continue the equitable treatments of all 
taxpayers in our country.
  The other points in the bill that I think are so important are the 
deduction for college tuition and fees. This can give up to $4,000 to 
families who are sending children to college. That is something that 
makes a huge difference to the families in our country who are paying 
the ever-increasing college tuition rates. It has a $250 deduction for 
a teacher who buys classroom supplies out of their own pockets. I know 
teacher after teacher in this country who has seen a child who doesn't 
have a workbook or who wants to enhance the quality of instruction, so 
the teacher buys, from her own pocketbook, the supplies that will 
enhance the educational opportunity. Yet the teachers have done it out 
of the goodness of their hearts, not because they are highly paid--
because we know teachers are notoriously underpaid. It is because they 
care about the students and about the learning. So we have a deduction 
for those teachers who have done this, and that is in the bill before 
us in this Congress.
  We will extend the research and development tax credit. That has been 
the lifeblood of innovation in our country. We have extended this 
credit 11 times since it was enacted in 1981. We know that it has 
helped us remain competitive, with increased competition from foreign 
countries, and has added American jobs because of the creativity and 
technological innovation that has been provided. I wish that we had a 
few more tax cuts.
  We have an inequitable situation with timber taxes, where we have a 
competition with foreign countries that are subsidized. It is my 
priority to work on that going forward. It is not in this bill. I wish 
it were. I pledge my efforts, along with many other States, to extend 
or to have this tax credit reenacted.
  There is also a very important energy production bill that is in the 
tax extender package. It is a bill that passed the Senate with full 
support, and it will bring the cost of energy down. It is the opening 
of leases 181 and 181 South in the Gulf of Mexico. These are leases 
that will open up natural gas and oil, which will have a major impact 
on the cost of fuel in our country.
  It is good for America. We must look to our own natural resources to 
stop our dependence on foreign resources for energy. If we are going to 
remain secure in our country, and if we are going to remain in control 
of our economy, we will pass this legislation that opens up these very 
important leases in the Gulf of Mexico.
  While no bill is perfect, no bill does everything everybody wants, I 
am in strong support of the tax extender bill. I have heard people 
speak against the bill and say: How can we pass tax cuts when we have 
deficits? The fact of the matter is, we have higher revenue when we 
have tax cuts. We have had the highest revenue in the history of 
America since the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003. We have brought the 
deficit down and have cut it in half already because of the tax cuts. 
The stock market is hitting new highs because of the tax cuts.
  I hope we will continue to extend tax cuts for hard-working Americans 
to make our country competitive, to keep the revenue coming in, to 
bring the deficit down, and to keep the healthy economy that has caused 
our unemployment to go down to the lowest rates we have had in the last 
four decades.
  It is a good bill. We will work next year to increase the tax cuts, 
to continue the tax cuts and keep our robust economy and our low 
unemployment.
  Mr. President, I again thank the Senator from Ohio for yielding me 
this time.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Vitter). The Senator from Ohio is 
recognized.

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