[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 52 (Thursday, March 26, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H4047]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              OBAMA TAXES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, one of the worst things that you 
can do during an economic downturn is to raise taxes. And Speaker 
Pelosi and the Democrats' budget does exactly that.
  The amount of taxes that they anticipate raising in their budget, 
which we are going to debate next week, is $1.4 trillion. One point 
four trillion dollars. And the majority of the burden of this tax 
increase is on a number of different areas of government. One of those 
is a $637 billion tax increase that is going to be borne by small 
businesses that pay taxes as individuals. Small businesses create about 
60 to 80 percent of all the new jobs in America, and these new taxes 
will be a real wet blanket on job creation and economic growth right in 
the middle of this recession.
  They are also going to tax everybody in this country with the energy 
tax that they are going to add. The budget proposes to raise taxes by 
$646 billion on consumers of oil, coal and natural gas through a 
complicated cap-and-tax program that will increase the cost of energy 
for every American. If you turn on your light switch, if you use gas in 
your car, if you use gas to heat your home, any kind of energy that you 
use is going to be taxed. And that is going to amount to, on average, 
$3,128 in new taxes on every family in America.
  Also under the Speaker's budget, taxes on capital gains and dividends 
will increase from 15 to 20 percent, increasing taxes on investors by 
$338 billion over 10 years. These taxes would directly affect investors 
and stockholders, including people who have 401(k) programs and pension 
funds, mostly impacted by the declining stock market, and would further 
discourage investments during a time when new investments are 
absolutely essential to jump-start our economy.
  They are also going to tax charitable giving. They are going to 
reduce the amount of money that people can deduct from their taxes when 
they give money to charities. And the charities of this country 
indicate that is going to cost them at least $4 to $9 billion. Now, if 
the charities in this country can't spend that $4 to $9 billion that is 
given to them by the people of this country, then where are they going 
to get the money?
  Where are the people of this country going to get the money to solve 
these problems? It is going to probably end up on the back of the 
taxpayers.
  And then we have what is called the ``death tax'' that they are 
reinstating. And that says that everybody that has a business, if you 
want to pass it on to your relatives or your children or grandchildren 
when you die, there is going to be a tax on it. They are going to tax 
it and tax it and tax it so that the value of the property or the 
investment will go down dramatically. And many of the people who would 
inherit a business so that they can carry on, a farmer, an agricultural 
family, they will lose it because they can't pay the taxes.
  And then they are also going to tax investors, Part 2 investors. The 
budget would more than double the taxes on carried interest, increasing 
taxes up from the capital gains rate of 15 percent to the income tax 
rate of 35 percent.
  And all I can say to my colleagues is that the Speaker and the 
Democrat proposal needs to be re-evaluated. At a time when this economy 
is suffering, we need to have tax cuts, tax incentives for new job 
creation, and tax cuts that will allow Americans to take more of their 
pay home that they can spend on things like refrigerators, cars, food 
and clothing.

                              {time}  1300

  And what they're going to do is they're going to tax, tax, tax, which 
is going to be another wet blanket on the economy.
  One of the great things, one of the things that really hurt this 
country during the Great Depression in the twenties and thirties, was 
because they raised taxes. That's exactly the wrong thing to do. After 
Jimmy Carter put us in this trick bag with 14 percent unemployment, or 
14 percent inflation and 12 percent unemployment, Ronald Reagan came in 
and cut taxes across the board, and that increased the productivity in 
this country. People had more disposable income, and the economy 
flourished, and we had a period of unprecedented economic growth. 
That's what we should be doing now, not raising taxes, not adding to 
the deficit by having these huge budgetary expenditures that are in 
Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats' plan.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope that everybody will listen to what was just said 
because we don't need tax increases and more spending right now.

                          ____________________