[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 111 (Tuesday, July 27, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H6049]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE DEFICIT
(Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, you listen to the rhetoric in this hall and
you hear a lot of talk from the folks on the other side of the aisle,
the Republicans, about the deficit. It's very simple. There are two
ways you deal with the deficit. Number one, you reduce spending or,
number two, you increase income, and the way you increase income is you
have more tax revenue. The two biggest ways you can get more tax
revenue is taxing the most wealthy people in the country who can afford
it.
The Republicans don't want to eliminate the tax cuts to the upper 1
and 2 percent of the population, people making over $250,000 a year,
and they don't want require that to be a PAYGO. They just want those
people to keep getting those tax breaks that were reduced 8 years ago.
They're concerned about the inheritance tax, people that might inherit
over $3.5 million a person. They're concerned about them. That's who
they're concerned about, not middle class families who got the largest
tax cut in history with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that
not a Republican voted for. It was a Democratic bill, and the balanced
budget under the Clinton years, all Democrats, a balanced budget.
So if you want to reduce deficits, you need to support the Democrats
who do the hard lifting and see that we have revenue as well as
responsible spending.
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