[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 165 (Tuesday, December 14, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2128]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           H.R. 4853: THE MIDDLE CLASS TAX RELIEF ACT OF 2010

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 14, 2010

  Mr. KUCINICH. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4853, 
the Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010. This legislation permanently 
extends the tax cut provisions passed in 2001 and 2003 for individuals 
with incomes below $200,000 and $250,000 for couples. It would 
permanently extend the 10%, 23% and 28% marginal tax brackets, as well 
as the 33% bracket as it applies to income of less than $250,000. It 
would also continue the maximum $1,000 child tax credit and the maximum 
15% rate on capital gains and dividends where income is less than 
$250,000. It would permanently reduce the tax known as the ``marriage 
penalty,'' and it includes a 2-year ``patch'' intended to prevent more 
than 25 million Americans from being subject to the alternative minimum 
tax over the next two years. It also permanently extends expensing 
rules for small businesses.
  I am glad to see so much focus on the unemployed and underemployed 
during debate on the potential extension of the tax cuts. However, the 
myth that we must pass tax cuts to the wealthy in order to help those 
without jobs has been disproven several times over. If the concern is 
about the plight of the 15 million unemployed Americans, the estimated 
12 million underemployed, and the estimated 6 million long-term 
unemployed, we should do the humane and economically efficient thing: 
extend and expand unemployment assistance.
  Instead, the debate is about whether to extend tax cuts to the 
wealthy. Nearly a quarter of all the income in America today goes to 
the top 1% of Americans. In recent years, the highest-income Americans 
have received by far the largest pre-tax raises of any group. They have 
also had their tax rates drop by far more. Americans have said in polls 
that they want to see the Bush tax cuts on households making more than 
$250,000 per year expire. For the wealthiest 3% of Americans, 
expiration would simply mean a return to 1990's tax rates if that were 
to happen. Yet, many of the same advocates for passing a massive tax 
cut for the wealthy are bemoaning a growing budget deficit.
  We must not ask the middle class, the working class, those who are 
not fortunate enough to make $200,000 or $100,000 or even $20,000 a 
year, to pay so that the wealthiest Americans can enjoy the lowest 
income tax rates that any wealthy American has had since the 1960s. We 
must not tell the poor, the unemployed, and the underemployed, that we 
cannot help you, because we have decided that the wealthiest Americans 
need a tax cut more than you need a lift to get you through these 
brutal times. Those that need our help must not hear from Congress: go 
and figure it out for yourselves.

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