[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5371-5378]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  THE COUNTDOWN CREW: COUNTDOWN TO THE TAX INCREASE BY THE DEMOCRATIC 
                                MAJORITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Shuster) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. SHUSTER. Mr. Speaker, we have come to the floor tonight again, my 
colleagues and I, to talk about something that is of great concern to 
us, great concern to the American people. And that is that, in just 
1,398 days, there will be one of the largest tax increases in American 
history, over $200 billion, and that is going to occur if the majority 
party does not extend the tax

[[Page 5372]]

cuts that the Republicans put in place in 2001, 2003 and extended some 
of them in the last Congress.
  But that is going to happen. This huge tax increase is going to occur 
in America. And the Democrats don't have to do anything but run out the 
clock. If they sit on their hands, sit on the ball, we will see, in 
1,398 days, as I said, one of the largest tax increases that the 
American people will have ever experienced.
  Some of my colleagues on the other side have talked about the change 
that took place in this body, and there was a change. But I don't know 
anybody in America, nobody that I talk to in the Ninth Congressional 
District of Pennsylvania or across Pennsylvania, that voted to see 
their taxes get increased.
  Over the last several months, over the last few years, several years 
actually, we have seen this economy move forward creating jobs. In 
fact, over the last 4 years, this economy has created 7.2 million jobs.

                              {time}  1945

  It is because of those tax cuts that we put in place. The 
unemployment rate in America is at 4.6 percent. It is the lowest 
average unemployment rate in the four decades that we have experienced 
over the last three or four years.
  Once again, if we don't extend these tax cuts, the American people 
are going to see more of their hard-earned dollars being sent off to 
Washington. If you look at a family of four that makes $40,000 or so 
combined income, has two kids in their family, if we don't extend these 
tax cuts, if the majority party, the Democrats in Congress, don't 
extend these tax cuts, people in that income range are going to see an 
increase of about $2,000 or $2,200 a year.
  Some in this body may think that is not a lot of money, but I know to 
the hardworking people in central Pennsylvania that earn $40,000 in 
income, $2,200 is a lot of money. You can take that money and that is a 
nice down payment on a car. You can buy a new washer and dryer machine. 
You can save that money for college for your children. If you take that 
$2,000 or $2,200 a year over the next 10 years and invest it in a 
mutual fund returning about 5 percent income, that would grow to 
$30,000 in the next 10 years. That is a significant amount of money to 
send your child off to one of the higher education institutions in our 
country.
  I think that the majority party ought to take a lesson from one of 
their own. Back in the 1960s when President Kennedy came into office, 
he cut taxes. What happened was that the economy grew and revenues to 
the government grew. We look back at history to President Ronald Reagan 
in the 1980s. He did the same thing. He cut the tax rates. The economy 
grew, it created jobs, and, lo and behold, more revenues flowed into 
the Federal Government.
  That is again what we did in 2001 and 2003. We cut taxes, and history 
has repeated itself. This economy is one of the strongest economies in 
U.S. history. We are getting record levels of revenue coming into the 
government. So what we need to do is to continue to keep those tax 
rates low, extend those tax cuts.
  Unfortunately for the American people, and that is one of the reasons 
we come to the floor on a weekly basis and talk about this, to make 
sure we bring the attention to the American people, make sure they are 
aware of what is going to happen, the Democrats, they said it very 
clearly in their campaign rhetoric in 2006, that the leader of the Ways 
and Means Committee, the new chairman, has said time and time again 
during that campaign election that he didn't know of any of President 
Bush's or the Republican tax cuts that deserve to be extended.
  One of the first things they did when they became the majority party 
is they made it easier, not harder, but made it easier to raise your 
taxes. When the Republicans controlled the House, we made it the rules 
of the House that you couldn't raise taxes unless you had a three-
fifths vote in the House to raise taxes. One of the first things the 
Democrats did was to make it easier. They decreased it to a simple 
majority to raise your taxes.
  They put in place PAYGO. It should actually be PAYTAXGO, because it 
is going to make it easier for them. They are not going to touch any 
existing programs, but on new spending they are going to have to offset 
any new spending; and the way to offset that, the easiest way, is to 
increase taxes. I believe, as I believe many Americans believe, that 
that is what is going to happen.
  The American people need to know this. We hope that people are tuning 
in and listening to us as we talk about this. We call ourselves the 
Countdown Crew. We are 1,398 days away from this huge tax increase 
unless the American people speak up, unless the American people talk to 
their elected officials and say they are not going to stand for a tax 
increase.
  We have created a Web site, and we would love for you to e-mail us 
and let us know, give us your story of how the tax cuts, whichever one, 
whether it was the child tax credit, or the accelerated depreciation, 
dividend tax cuts, the death tax, which one of these tax cuts has 
benefited you. We would like to hear your story so we can talk about 
it.
  There are millions and millions of Americans out there, young and 
old, low and medium income, that have benefited by these tax cuts. Our 
Web site, I guess it is our e-mail, is [email protected]. 
Once again, there are some stories tonight. Later on in the evening we 
will be sharing with you that people around the country have sent us e-
mails about how important these tax cuts are to them and how 
detrimental it will be to their small business or their family or 
communities across America.
  I am pleased to be joined tonight by one of my colleagues from 
Kentucky, Mr. Davis. I yield to Mr. Davis to talk about some of these 
issues tonight.
  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Thank you, Bill. I appreciate the leadership 
you have taken on this issue. The one thing that our group is 
consistent in is all of us have come from the small business world. All 
of us have come from that arena that creates the jobs in America, 
pursuing a vision, pursuing opportunity.
  For those who have just joined us, you have joined the Countdown 
Crew. You can join us at [email protected]. We have gotten 
thousands of e-mails from around the United States based on the first 
few evenings that we have been talking about the impact of positive, 
progressive, pro-growth economic policies that allow working families 
to keep more of what they own and create incentives for small 
businesses.
  As we go into the time right now, the reason we are called the 
Countdown Crew is because of the fact that unless legislation is passed 
to extend the tax cuts that have been so bountiful and so beneficial to 
the American people, to the United States economy, in creating millions 
of jobs, those tax cuts will expire at the end of 2010 and every 
working family in the United States is going to receive a tax increase.
  And 1,398 days from now, there will be a tax increase on every 
working family. A family of four making between $30,000 and $50,000 a 
year will have a $2,092 tax increase imposed upon them. That doesn't 
come with additional legislation being passed. In fact, the chairman of 
the Ways and Means Committee, the gentleman from New York, has said 
that he is not going to introduce any tax legislation to extend those 
tax cuts and they will expire. So for everybody watching tonight, your 
tax bill is going to go up by a minimum of $2,000.
  When you think about what that means, let's look at the other side, 
the positive side of the Republican policy, the conservative policy of 
allowing people to keep more of what they earn.
  First, by keeping more of what you earn, it is invested in causes 
that are important for you, whether it is put into your home, whether 
it is put into your family, whether it is saved for education, whether 
it is invested in a new car, in clothing. We can think about any wide 
variety of issues, but those are the dollars that fuel the economy.

[[Page 5373]]

  I believe very firmly we see it in the numbers, that when people are 
allowed to keep their own money in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks by 
extending those cuts in a time of war, that we have seen unprecedented 
economic growth take place in this country and a recovery that shows 
right now industrial productivity, our manufacturing productivity in 
the United States, is at an all-time record high, which is an amazing 
thing as the United States economy continues to churn along. In fact, 
the growth that has taken place in the United States economy in the 
last 3 years is greater than the entire economic output of China, which 
is the largest potential economic competitor to us in the long run.
  The reason that I share this is because it has made a difference in 
the lives of ordinary people. When folks are allowed to keep more of 
what they earn, they are going to make sure that those dollars are 
accomplishing things for their family, especially over the long term.
  I would like to tell one story as we begin tonight that I think 
typifies the success that can be seen by allowing people to keep more 
of their own money. As Bill said, this is not a partisan issue. John 
Kennedy cut taxes and had economic growth take off and record revenues 
come into the Treasury. We have allowed people to keep more of what 
they earned, and what happened this past year, record revenues have 
come into the United States Treasury. And the real issue is controlling 
spending, not taking more of people's hard-earned dollars.
  Well, pursuing that vision was something that Bill Shuster has done. 
It was something that I did back in the early 1990s starting my 
business, helping our manufacturing companies compete and keep their 
jobs here in the United States.
  One person who I would like to highlight tonight, a man who has 
become my friend, but also somebody who pursued that vision himself, 
was a man named George Hammond. He runs Hammond's Automotive. He 
started with its first operation in Covington, Kentucky, over 20 years 
ago. He took that chance that many Americans take to pursue the 
American Dream.
  He started off with a mechanics shop. The reason that his automotive 
shop grew in customers was not by popular advertising, it wasn't by 
media, it was by word of mouth, because the character of George and all 
the folks who worked with him demonstrated a desire to care for their 
customers and to make a difference, and they got more business and they 
grew. They opened a body shop.
  Suddenly, the things that they began to encounter were the regulatory 
system that was increasing costs upon them as they were repairing cars. 
But even with that, he continued to grow beyond the impact of the 
regulatory system, hiring more people.
  As a result of the tax policy that has taken place over the last 6 
years, where people are allowed to keep more of their own money, unlike 
sending it to bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., where we may not know 
how it is going to be spent, George took that and he reinvested it. He 
reinvested it in his people, in training, and most recently opened 
another business in Burlington, Kentucky, moving out into the suburbs 
from Covington where he is reaching more and more people, all by word 
of mouth, and there a following that is going with that.
  But I don't know what would have happened to George Hammond if he did 
not have that flexibility, if he had the tax increase that is coming 
down the road at the end of 2010, in 1,398 days. He probably wouldn't 
have had that opportunity to grow his business and create that 
opportunity.
  But instead of raising taxes, we have created taxpayers with this 
policy. This is a family-friendly policy. That is a policy that allows 
people to pay for college tuition. It allows them to invest in their 
children's future. And for George Hammond, not only did it benefit him, 
but it benefited all of the employees, now going into a second 
generation of employees with three different business units that are 
creating jobs, creating a future for folks right there in Boone County 
and in Kenton County, Kentucky.
  Mr. SHUSTER. How many people does George employ?
  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. It is a typical small business where he has 
over 25 employees.
  Mr. SHUSTER. That is small business personified, that 25 people. 
Those are the kinds of stories that I think we need to bring out.
  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. I think the one thing that he has experienced, 
too, the discussions that we have had when I have taken my F-250 pickup 
truck in or our Chevy Astro van to get worked on, the one thing we talk 
about is health insurance. And I remember as a small business owner 
having to deal with the issues of the high cost of health insurance, 
dealing with tax policies. He has gone the extra mile to help his 
people, probably similar to some the experiences that you have had.
  Mr. SHUSTER. Absolutely. I didn't mean to interrupt you, but I just 
wanted to know what size business that was and make sure the American 
people know that we are talking about people in their neighborhoods, in 
their communities, that employ 25, 30, 50, 100 people and that start 
from small and turn these enterprises into successful businesses. In 
most cases, my experience has been those small business owners, they 
are the backbone of the community. They are the ones that give to the 
local little league team. They are the ones that contribute to the 
hospital and the hospital boards. They are the ones making sure their 
communities are wonderful places to live, or are helping to make sure 
they are wonderful places to live.
  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. I think that is a great point. George is an 
institution in the community. The one thing is that his attitude toward 
service has spiraled down to his employees, to their vendors, and that 
kind of dedication and devotion is I think not necessarily found in the 
very large corporations that are out there. It is those small 
businesses, like you say, that are connected.
  For those folks who are watching, we invited you to join the 
Countdown Crew. You can contact us at [email protected]. We 
encourage you to tell us your stories, your thoughts, your desires for 
policy.
  In particular, what we are seeing over and over again in hundreds and 
hundreds and hundreds of messages that are shared back to us is the 
impact of a positive economic policy that allows people to keep more of 
what they earn. What we have coming, if we don't take action, if the 
House doesn't pass legislation by the end of 2010, every working family 
in this country is going to have a $2,092 increase. So many benefits 
are going away.
  What we want to do is keep positive policies that empower people, 
create jobs, and create a future.
  With that, I yield back to the gentleman.

                              {time}  2000

  Mr. SHUSTER. As soon as next week, the Democratic majority will be 
introducing their budget. It is my guess that they are going to spell 
out exactly how they are going to increase taxes on the American people 
to pay for that budget. They are going to have a choice. The choice is 
going to be either to continue the tax policies which have resulted in 
record job growth, 7.2 million jobs over the last 4 years, 40 quarters 
of an expanding economy; or they are going to choose to put the brakes 
on the growth of this economy by raising taxes.
  I am going to predict tonight that if they decide to choose to raise 
taxes, which all indications lead me to believe they will, the brakes 
will go on this economy in very short order.
  One of the important reforms that we as Republicans made when we were 
in the majority was to reduce the taxes on dividends and capital gains. 
In past history, dividends and capital gains were sort of viewed as 
only the fat cats in society, only the wealthy get to benefit by a 
reduction in taxes on dividends and capital gains. But that is not the 
case today.
  Over 60 percent of the American population is invested into mutual 
funds and the stock market, into various

[[Page 5374]]

other financial vehicles. It is widespread in the economy who invests 
and who can benefit from a decrease in the tax on dividends and a cut 
in the tax on capital gains.
  Prior to 2003, tax cut dividends were subject to individual income 
taxes up to 38.6 percent on top of corporate taxes of 35 percent. It 
was double taxation. The corporations in America that you invested in, 
if you invested in General Motors or you invested in Wal-Mart and they 
made a profit, they got hit with a 35 percent tax increase, and then 
they paid out their dividends to the millions of people from all walks 
of life who invested in those corporations, and the dividend, it was 
hit at a tax rate of 38.6 percent or below. Among developing countries, 
only Japan has had higher tax rates on investment income than us.
  In 2003, the top individual tax rate on dividends was cut by more 
than half down to 15 percent. Starting next year, there will be no 
dividend tax at all for lower income Americans which is absolutely 
essential to continue growth in this economy.
  In addition, capital gains tax increased, with the top rates on long-
term capital gains dropping from 20 and 10 percent down to 15 and 5 
percent. The 5 percent rate will drop to zero next year for those in 
the bottom two tax brackets. Again, for families in the middle and 
lower income that have investments, they are not going to be taxed on 
those types of investments, or it is going to be significantly 
decreased.
  Those lower tax rates have promoted a strong and growing economy, and 
has created 7.2 million new jobs. Our job creation in the last 4 years 
is greater than the European Union and the Japanese economy combined. 
This has been an economy that has grown strong and created millions and 
millions of jobs.
  Again, if the Democrats fail to extend the tax relief, in 2010, those 
rates will return to where they were before we lowered them, and the 
American people are going to experience significant tax increases.
  Because seniors rely on income from investments, they have benefited 
greatly from those lower taxes. That is why it is important. They are 
one of the key groups in our economy that have benefited by it.
  The Treasury Department has estimated that 8.5 million seniors saved 
an average of $1,144 on their 2005 taxes as a result of lower rates on 
dividends and long-term capital gains. And $1,100 goes a long way 
towards buying something new for your home, whether it is a washer and 
dryer, or whether it is a senior giving it to their grandchildren to 
help them out as they make their way in the world and go to college and 
try to get an education.
  According to the Tax Foundation in an analysis of IRS data, more than 
half of all taxpayers over the age of 65 received dividend income in 
2004. Over half of the folks over 65 years of age are receiving 
dividend income. That is double the national average for all taxpayers.
  Seniors also rely upon capital gains income. That same Tax Foundation 
report found that while nationally less than 13 percent of taxpayers 
claim capital gains income in 2004, that figure cost 30 percent, a 
third for taxpayers between the age of 65 and 74, and more than 27 
percent for those over the age of 75. Seniors benefit greatly by the 
dividend and capital gains tax cuts.
  On May 10, 2006, Flora Gramma Green, a national spokeswoman for the 
Seniors Coalition, described the importance of lower dividend tax rates 
for seniors living on a fixed income. She said, ``When I planned for my 
retirement, I needed the dividend income just to have a secure 
retirement. I am not wealthy. I worry every day if I will have the 
money to buy the gas I need to get to the doctor, I worry if I will 
have the money I need for proper nursing care as I get older, and I 
worry that the monthly income I plan for will stretch far enough each 
month to let me pay my bills. The millions of fellow seniors who 
benefit from this tax reduction are in the same boat I am in. We need 
this tax break just to continue the safe and secure retirement that we 
planned for.''
  Those are the words of a senior who is certainly involved in the 
fight to continue to keep these tax rates low, to see that the tax 
rates are extended so that in just 1,398 days, which will be January 1, 
2011, which is a short period of time away, we will see this $200 
billion tax increase, and it is going to cut across all income 
spectrums, from low income to high income.
  These folks are going to have to send more of their money to the 
Federal Government and not be able to put it back in the economy, 
creating jobs in the most efficient way that an economy can create 
jobs.
  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. One thing I would highlight, a few examples to 
share just from back in our district, and feel free to jump in with 
your experiences from Pennsylvania, growing up in the Ohio Valley and 
seeing our industry having problems competing, I know one of the 
choices I had when I left high school was to go in the mills or go in 
the military. I am so glad I went in the military because when I came 
back years later, those mills were gone. The environment had changed 
dramatically, and expectations had changed dramatically.
  The people who are allowed to keep more of what they earn are going 
to invest it locally and invest it in their family. As our dollars stay 
in our community, there is going to be increased opportunity.
  In northern Kentucky where I live, in Kentucky's Fourth District, 
which runs on the south side of the Ohio River, right across from 
Cincinnati, we have one of the largest air hubs in North America, the 
Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport. Being in Kentucky, 
we are very proud of the fact that Cincinnati's airport is located in 
the great commonwealth of Kentucky, but there is a story which affects 
the Tristate area in a profound way that has taken place over the past 
couple of years.
  Delta Airlines, one of the great flagship carriers of this country, 
has a major international hub located there. They also have a home 
grown regional carrier, Comair, which started out as a small commuter 
airline, which has grown into quite a presence.
  They have gone through a very, very tough time over the past several 
years, since 9/11, dealing with the fluctuations in fuel prices and the 
issues of security costs, the challenges that have been faced in the 
economy turning around. The tax cuts that have been so beneficial to 
America's families that have created 7 million new jobs, that have 
allowed people to keep more of what they earn, on average between 
$2,000 and $3,000 per family in this country, has had a direct impact 
on this company.
  The reason I want to highlight Delta and Comair and all of the 
businesses in our region, they have gone to great lengths to sacrifice 
and do something different than other airlines have. Rather than 
cutting their pensions for the expediency of institutional investors on 
Wall Street or other creditors, they worked with their creditors and 
all of their vendors not only to keep the airline going at a world 
class level, but to make sure that they kept their benefits and pension 
plans in place for their employees.
  The commitment of the employees have been so great through all of 
this. Many of them have made tremendous sacrifices. The one thing I can 
see is that these employees who are making 40 percent or less than what 
they were making 1 year ago, 2 years ago, are now suddenly faced with 
not only having substantial reduction in their income to keep their job 
moving, but, in 1,398 days, according to this regressive policy, they 
are going to have an additional $2,092 on average added on top of those 
families.
  I think it is entirely unreasonable because the impact can ripple all 
of the way across the economy, not only in terms of demands on those 
families, but the consuming families, some of the ways people spend 
that money, is travel. They travel for business. They buy products from 
companies that fuel that business travel economy. One of the great 
gateways to Florida, people traveling to vacation in the south from 
different parts of the United States, are flying on low-cost fares from 
Delta through Cincinnati and other gateways

[[Page 5375]]

in the region. And that $2,000 on average per family will have an 
impact on that aspect of the economy, too.
  You might ask, why are you bringing this up? Our economy is so 
complex, so interconnected, we are so interdependent on one another, by 
having a significant impact on one side will eventually have an impact 
on the other side. It is kind of an economic butterfly effect, not in 
the extreme like the proposition in chaos theory, but it will create a 
lot of chaos in our economy.
  Another benefit I will share, I have a very good friend who is head 
of the Manufacturers Association, a committed, small business community 
executive, named Rick Jordan, who is chairman of the board of our 
Gateway Technical Community College which focuses on advanced 
manufacturing and information technology education to train our next 
generation workforce.
  He is also the president of LSI Industries, which does extremely 
innovative engineering for lighting systems and retail display systems. 
One of the companies that has been driven by an increase in consumption 
in a very literal and physical sense is a big client of theirs, is 
Dairy Queen. Because people have had a little more discretionary 
income, they are able to meet their needs, and they want to take their 
family out for that treat, that hamburger, that ice cream. It just 
doesn't end there. When they hit the drive-through and they get that 
Blizzard for their kids, then it starts through the supply change and 
works its way back.
  LSI, being one of our premier businesses in the Cincinnati-North 
Kentucky area, has their employees manufacturing all of the signage for 
all of the Dairy Queens in this competitive environment in the entire 
country. They won that contract because of the increased growth that 
has taken place when, over the last 4 years, when the full impact of 
this positive tax policy has been felt.
  As we share other stories, I think those are two, one from 
manufacturing, from the leisure industry, from transportation, from the 
restaurant industry, which show this connectedness.
  Mr. SHUSTER. Mr. Speaker, I don't want to mention his full name, but 
I had a conversation with a gentleman today who is a local businessman 
and employs about 120 people in one of my counties back in 
Pennsylvania. I am just going to call him Harold. I had a conversation 
with Harold on the phone today, and it was about the negative impact of 
these tax increases if we don't act on them.
  As I was talking to Harold, he has been in business. Actually, his 
father started the business. Harold has been in it for 40 or 50 years. 
They started out with a couple of dump trucks and a bull dozer. Today 
they have a tremendous amount of equipment. They are an excavating 
business. They employ 120 people. But Harold's wife, Delores, just had 
a health scare, and so Harold has been looking at the business and what 
would happen if he were to pass away.
  He said, you in Congress need to pass the death tax because if you 
don't, if I pass away, it is going to cost his children millions, up to 
several millions of dollars in taxes that they are going to have to pay 
in Federal and State tax, mainly Federal tax, to keep the business. He 
said, my children won't have access to that kind of cash, so they will 
have to liquidate the business if I were to die.
  There are thousands of stories like that across America, that we need 
to make sure that we are extending the death tax and making sure that 
small-business owners like Harold and Delores, if they pass away, that 
their children will not have to liquidate a business because you have 
120 families that they employ making a good living, living in rural 
Pennsylvania, that are potentially not going to have jobs if that were 
to happen.
  Also, something that I think is important, as you mentioned, you were 
a small business owner, and I was a small business owner before I got 
here. Harold is the kind of guy in Pennsylvania, he is one of the 
pillars of the community. He is the guy that is always contributing to 
the community, giving back, whether he is on the hospital board or the 
economic development board. He is the guy making sure that he is 
contributing to the local Boy Scouts, to the Little League, making sure 
that the firemen have money, that he is supporting their efforts to 
raise money as they struggle to keep their ambulance and fire service 
going.
  Those are the kinds of people, small-business owners, that have been 
in business for many, many years, that give back to their community, 
give back to their community and give back to their community.

                              {time}  2015

  Those are the kinds of people and those are the kinds of communities 
that are penalized with a tax like the death tax that would cause a 
business, one of the pillars of the community, to have to liquidate to 
raise the money to send it down here to Washington, to come into the 
Federal Treasury, and it would go out again probably 50 percent or 60 
percent less of what came in. It would be less efficient than Harold 
being able, or Harold's family being able, to give back to the 
community and get the most impact out of a dollar.
  Again, those are the kinds of people. I had a lunch with a gentleman 
in a similar business as Harold, gentleman by the name of Dave I will 
call him, who is the same type of person, started a business, told me 
about growing up on the farm in rural Pennsylvania, saying he did not 
have any money; he did not know any better. But he started out a with a 
flatbed truck hauling coal from the coal region of northeastern 
Pennsylvania back down to central Pennsylvania. That is how he got 
started, and today he has 200 employees, three different businesses, 
and is another gentleman who gives back to the community again and 
again and again.
  That is what we are talking about. That is what makes America great, 
coming from a poor farmer to a prosperous business owner and a pillar 
of the community. Again, that is what makes America great. These are 
the kinds of people all across this country we have to make sure that 
we are not penalizing for being successful.
  I yield back to the gentleman.
  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. I think you have hit the nail right on the 
head there, and for those who just joined us, you are watching the 
Countdown Crew. You can contact us at [email protected]. We 
come to the floor the first night of every vote to talk about the 
positive impacts of tax policies that let people keep more of what they 
earn, keep more of what they own by default, and ultimately create the 
jobs and create a future for folks here.
  Most folks do not realize that with the vote that took place, 
changing the House's Congress in 2006, put us on the clock for a tax 
increase that will come. The chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, 
the tax-writing committee in the House, has said that there is no tax 
cut that he sees that is worth keeping.
  I think that shows a blindness to the dramatic economic impacts that 
have hit where we are at all-time manufacturing productivity and all-
time low unemployment that is remarkable in these times, that we have 
created 7 million new jobs. What is going to happen in 1,398 days is a 
tax increase that will hit the average working family in this country 
with a $2,092 tax increase, and that will happen without any 
legislation being introduced.
  The way the prior tax cuts were drawn, we would extend them every 2 
years. That extension right now appears to not be happening. On behalf 
of the Countdown Crew, we would encourage you to write your Member of 
Congress to encourage your Member for the district that is represented 
by you watching at home to make sure that those are extended.
  More than that, we would like to hear your stories, if you would send 
to us [email protected] and tell us what you have done with 
that additional money. We have heard stories of folks who have been 
able to meet personal needs, start businesses and create jobs. The goal 
of a constructive government policy related to revenue is not to raise 
taxes, not to create

[[Page 5376]]

taxes for their own sake, but to create taxpayers to have an empowering 
policy that lets people work, pursue their vision, and pursue 
opportunity in the long run.
  Probably one of the most interesting stories that I can share I think 
has a little bit of humor in it. If we go to a shopping mall in the 
United States right now, you can look out and see there is always a 
group of kids somewhere in the mall, the Goth group, that is dressed in 
black, black shirts, black shoes, black pants, black hair, black 
garments that they will have on them.
  There is a little secret that I will share with America's youth and 
the Goth movement tonight. The color black, the person who owned the 
patent on the color black comes from the Fourth District of Kentucky. A 
brilliant chemical energy engineer named Bill Stoeppel some years ago 
discovered that there was a real problem in manufacturing waste in 
paints and in dyes for clothing and paint for the automotive industry. 
He developed a unique solution dispersion to carry the graphite that 
would be that color black. He named his little company Solution 
Dispersions. He took the idea from the experience that he had. He ended 
up buying a company that at one point he worked for. He started another 
facility in this business and it grew. He had an exclusivity, made a 
very, very small profit on processing this graphite for the large 
coatings and coloring companies that support our manufacturing industry 
around the United States.
  Right there, in Cynthiana, Kentucky, is the headquarters of the color 
black. The reason I bring that up is there is one person, one man, who 
has created hundreds of jobs in different parts of the country and also 
is fueling a supply chain at a reduced cost to be able to compete not 
only domestically but internationally as well, with strong and high-
quality products.
  He did not just stop there and bury his money in the ground. The 
profits that he made he reinvested in his community. He was one of the 
people that you had alluded to earlier when you talked about Harold. 
Well, Bill was one of those pillars of the community that worked with 
the hospital and the school system, was somebody that was active in the 
Rotary Club, made sure that the hospital board had resources and 
assets, and he also invested back in the land, a personal love of his. 
He was ranching quality, very high quality grade, again creating more 
jobs and opportunity and participating in the consumption economy.
  Many of those opportunities literally have the chance to go away on 
December 31, 2007. When we talk about tax policy, oftentimes there is a 
misnomer, this class warfare idea, that it is always the super-rich who 
get off or the rich who get off and do not pay their burden, that it is 
always unfairly pushed down on working families and on the poor.
  The truth of the matter is with these tax cuts the ceiling was 
actually moved up. The burden was moved up. Millions were taken off the 
tax rolls. A new tax bracket was created for 10 percent which will 
disappear, a transitional tax bracket for those who were coming into 
the workforce, who are moving upward.
  There is a $1,000 child tax credit that is coming. Just in my family 
alone, when that went from $500, and that was set a long time ago when 
$500 had a different value in the economy than it does now, to $1,000 
that made a difference. Patty and I have six children. Right there that 
is a $3,000 tax increase to my family that will take place at the end 
of 2010.
  The marriage penalty is going to be restored, and I think practically 
the one thing that we must do is make sure that we have policy that is 
friendly to families, that encourages jobs, and encourages and 
strengthens the family. By putting the marriage penalty back in place, 
it actually makes it more profitable to be single, and I think that 
flies in the face of our American values here.
  You mentioned the estate tax earlier. It is a pernicious tax that 
confiscates money from families once that money has already been taxed. 
It is not the super, super-rich of the world, the Bill Gateses of the 
world, the multibillionaires of the world. They are not the ones that 
are going to have to worry about paying that. It is the small business 
owners who have capital-intensive businesses. It is going to be 
farmers, small manufacturers that have the most dramatic negative 
effect from that.
  We had one took place in my county that is a perfect example of this, 
a farmer. When the patriarch died, they did not understand. They loved 
farming. They wanted to focus on that business. They did not understand 
the impact of an estate tax, having a farm in a growing county with 
appreciating real estate values. Because they had gotten some 
incomplete legal advice, they came to find out that they literally were 
going to have to sell half of a farm that had been in the family for 
five generations because they wanted to keep farming just to pay the 
tax bill. I think that flies in the face of American values. It flies 
in the face of creating opportunities.
  Mr. SHUSTER. Absolutely. You talked earlier about the stories that we 
want to have sent to us, talking about real-life stories out there in 
America, how these tax cuts have helped them or what they are feeling 
in the economy or what they are feeling about their government. You can 
e-mail us at [email protected]. That is 
[email protected].
  I received an e-mail, and I wanted to read some of it to you. It is 
from Kent Berry, who is a small business owner from Gravel Ridge, 
Arkansas. I have never been to Gravel Ridge, Arkansas. It is about 15 
miles north of Little Rock; and over the past months, Kent has been 
watching us.
  Kent says he is swamped by Federal tax regulations which are driving 
him down. He goes on further to say: ``More and more I feel that the 
deck is stacked against me. I witness so much nonproduction being 
rewarded with money which I had to struggle to remit. I'm beginning to 
feel that the American Dream is an optical illusion. I'm starting to 
envision the American Dream a lot like the carrot and stick. I keep 
pressing but it ain't gettin' no closer.''
  Kent continues: ``I'm no constant agitator or perpetual malcontent, 
but I do enjoy C-SPAN and I did hear your e-mail address several times, 
and I'm writing to say that I'm struggling here.
  ``Government, like a lot of things, is a good thing. But like all 
good things, moderation.''
  And as Kent points out there, he is struggling out there because he 
has got a small business. He works hard to earn the money that he 
earns, and then he has to turn around and pay a tax bill that is bigger 
than he can probably handle. If we do not extend some of these tax 
cuts, the tax bill is going to be even greater for Kent.
  I know his story and his feelings are like millions of Americans out 
there that want to make certain that if they are going to invest their 
capital, if they are going to invest their blood, sweat and tears into 
a small enterprise, that they have the ability to get a return, that 
they have a ability to save some money, that they have an ability to 
make sure that their family lives a little better life than they have.
  This is the American Dream, as we have talked about a couple of these 
folks from your district and some from mine, that they start from 
meager beginnings and with hard work, with ingenuity, they grow a 
business and become significant parts of their communities, giving back 
to their communities. Those are the types of people that we want to 
make sure that they are not penalized, that they are not driven out of 
business because they have to have some big tax bill when they pass 
away, you know, whether it is taking that money and investing it into a 
mutual fund so they can get a nice dividend back and they are not 
overburdened with taxes, whether they take their company or their 
business or their property and sell it and do not have an oppressive 
capital gains tax.
  As you mentioned, most Americans do not take the money and bury it in 
the backyard. They put it back into the economy. They invest it in a 
mutual fund. They invest it into another

[[Page 5377]]

business or a property that builds something, but that money goes back 
into the economy to create jobs and to hopefully when they invest that 
money create a return for them so they can continue to live a good 
life.
  Again, through my district, there are a number of people. I have 
mentioned the name before, a B.C. Stone, another one of those 
operations started out in a garage. I visited with those folks about a 
week or so ago. They started out in a garage and today with a couple of 
employees, and today they employ 70 people. Their business is 
prosperous. It is growing over the last 4 years, and Travis Collins, 
one of the owners, says it is directly because of the various tax cuts 
that we put in place. The economy is moving, booming, and so his 
business right along with it.
  As I mentioned before, he has taken on an old hotel in my hometown of 
Everett, Pennsylvania, an over 110-year-old hotel, and he is restoring 
it and turning it into a 12-bedroom hotel with a first-rate restaurant 
in it. By doing this, he hopes he is going to make some money, but he 
really wants to give back to the community and this beautiful, small 
town that he grew up in and this hotel, quite frankly, was dilapidated. 
He is putting a fresh face on it, and he is going to try to attract 
people to come into the community, to spend money through tourism.
  Again, these are the kinds of things that happen when you allow 
people to keep more of their own money. They invest it, they grow their 
business, they try to create jobs and make their communities better 
places to live and to work.
  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. One of the things that relates to that, too, 
is that money just does not end at the personal savings account or even 
at the grocery store, the auto shop or dealership, or the Dairy Queen 
for that matter, as we mentioned earlier.
  There are others who are very, very dependent upon the benefits, the 
profits of these small businesses, the revenue from salaries, from jobs 
that are created, and that is all of our public servants.
  I have a daughter who is now doing her student teaching practicum. 
She is getting ready to go out and become a public school teacher in 
our district. Her salary ultimately is paid by the salaries of those 
who are employed, who own houses, who have jobs, who can contribute to 
the payroll tax in the community. Our policemen, our world-class law 
enforcement that we have, is funded. All the training that they receive 
is funded by taxpayer dollars that come from folks who are out in the 
economy, who are in jobs that are creating that value. They are 
creating that tax revenue that comes into the government, that pays for 
them. We have to make sure in order to keep them strong and to keep 
them well-funded we have to have a robust and strong economy.

                              {time}  2030

  The key to keeping those services world class, whether it is in 
education, whether it is public safety, whether it is even funding our 
military at a Federal level; a strong and robust economy is critical to 
that in the long run, because the entire supply chain, the entire chain 
of individuals is interconnected. We are in a society, in an economy, 
where everybody is connected, one to another, in some way. It is not 
just a circle of folks that we interact with, but it is those that we 
interact with. That chain moves on and on throughout the entire 
economy, rippling back and forth in a very positive way, in all, 
ultimately, being very beneficial.
  I have two friends who are in the insurance business. Ironically, 
they are both not only good friends and strong supporters of mine, they 
are extremely active in the community. I think the only place that they 
are not working in concert together is with insurance offices. Bob 
Boswell and Bob Kelly of Florence, Kentucky, are literally across a 
mall road together.
  But they get along well together, they work together on projects to 
benefit the community. They see it firsthand, introducing folks to 
financial planning. As they are trying to build a future, they are 
trying to look to the future for retirement savings. My friend, Dale 
Viniard, who is an insurance agent in Crestwood, Kentucky, was one of 
the very first people that Pat and I met when we moved to East 
Crestwood, Kentucky, at the opposite end of the district, experiences 
of people having a concern over their ability to provide for their 
family and the future, having that ability to make sure that they can 
have a job, make an income and ultimately have some type of retirement, 
build that nest egg.
  When you touched on the impact of the capital gains tax earlier, I 
think it's a huge, huge issue, because the majority of Americans now 
don't have these defined pension plans like somebody might have gotten 
50 years ago, working for the large automotive company. Because most 
people are coming out of the small business world that creates 88 
percent of the new jobs in this country. Their retirement plans are 
going to be in some form of deferred compensation of 401(k). Some type 
of retirement savings are diversified, spread over different types of 
investments. In most cases, they will have some degree of control over 
that.
  Just the change in these taxes could have a dramatic impact on senior 
citizens. They could literally see their tax burden double overnight 
when they seek to access their retirement funds just to live.
  Again, once that money comes out of the economy, it is not creating 
jobs. That investment is there; not only is it benefitting them, but it 
is creating jobs for the future.
  Mr. SHUSTER. Just in our closing minutes here, I want to reiterate, 
first of all, say we have been getting up here for the last several 
weeks talking about the coming tax increase, unless Congress and the 
Democratic majority acts, which will occur in 1,398 days, which will be 
January 1, 2011, and that occurs in 2008, some of the taxes, if they 
are not extended, will expire, 2009, 2010. Again, we want to hear from 
citizens around the country that have benefitted by these tax 
increases, tell us your story about your small business, how it has 
grown or how you started it.
  You can get those stories to us at the [email protected]. 
We want to hear those stories. Again, I want to close with just talking 
about what's going to happen with the dividend and the capital gains 
tax cuts if we don't act.
  January of 2010, those rates will go back up. As I mentioned earlier, 
when folks think about those dividends, whether you have a mutual fund, 
you have an IRA, you have a 401(k), you have some pension fund out 
there. By and large, if not all of them, almost every one of them, is 
dependent on investments to put income in and pay out to the 
beneficiaries.
  Prior to a 2003 tax cut, dividends were subject to an individual tax 
rate up to 38.6 percent and on top of a corporate tax rate of 35 
percent. Those types of rates are coming back unless this Congress and 
unless this Democratic majority acts. In 2003, the top individual tax 
rate on dividends was cut by more than half, down to 15 percent; and 
starting next year, that dividend, no dividend tax on income, on lower-
income Americans. That is substantial.
  In addition to capital gains tax decreased with the top rates on 
long-term capital gains dropping from 20 and 10 percent down to 15 and 
5 percent, and, again, the 5 percent rate will drop to zero next year 
for those in the bottom two tax brackets.
  If the Democrats fail to extend this tax relief, again, in 2010, they 
are going to come back, and anybody out there in America that is 
retired, anybody out there, as I said, that has a 401(k), a mutual 
fund, they are going to be taxed at a higher rate on those dividends. 
So it is important that we act. That is, again, why we come to the 
floor once a week and remind the American people that this tax increase 
is coming.
  You need to talk to your Member of Congress. I do not believe that 
anybody in the November elections voted to increase their taxes, and 
your Member of Congress needs to hear about it. We have to stop it 
because we want to see this economy continue to grow and to prosper.

[[Page 5378]]

  Does the gentleman from Kentucky wish to close? The gentleman from 
Texas arrived, too.
  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Thank you. For those of you joining us at the 
end here, you are with the [email protected]. Our motto is 
create taxpayers, not taxes. We want to allow you to keep more of what 
you earn, because when your dollars are in your pocket or in your 
community, it is creating America's jobs and advancing the economy.
  One person who has joined us tonight is a former certified public 
accountant from the great State of Texas, and his name is Mike Conaway. 
We have worked together on numerous issues in the committees, and I 
think that he would like to share something for a couple of minutes 
here.
  Mr. CONAWAY. Just to set the record straight, I am still a CPA. I am 
keeping my license current,
  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. We were hoping you were a recovering CPA.
  Mr. CONAWAY. Because, as you know, I am only one election away from 
being back in public practice. So maintaining my credentials that I 
have used for 30-plus years is important. Part of that work I did was 
with taxpayers, folks who actually make money and then pay taxes on 
that money.
  There is nothing inherently moral or immoral about a tax rate. The 
number in itself is not magic. We have gotten ourselves into a real 
ugly box in comparing or contrasting or linking spending issues with 
particular tax rates. In my view, those are entirely two different 
issues all together.
  We ought to determine what we ought to spend and what that 
appropriate amount is and then figure out how to collect the minimum 
amount of taxes needed to spend that. To the extent we try to link tax 
cuts on one type of a taxpayer to spending in other areas is a false 
argument. It is a straw man that is irrelevant in the grand scheme of 
things. I can assure you that the Federal Government's accounting 
system does not put cash from this particular tax rate into this bucket 
that is only spent on welfare; from this tax rate into one bucket, only 
goes in the Defense.
  Cash is fungible. I think we should reformulate the debate away from 
this idea that there is some link between the specific tax rates and 
specific spending issues, because I believe that is just a false 
argument, and it leads us down a bad path. Let's focus on what we ought 
to be spending in a variety of areas, whether it is defense or health 
care whatever it might be, let's figure out what the right amount is 
for that area. Then let's look for a system that allows us to collect 
that in a straightforward, easy to comply with, fair basis. I don't 
think our current Tax Code meets any of those criteria.
  I have made a living for a long time helping people comply with the 
complexity of it. You know, a lot of my colleagues are in the same 
boat. But this current system is unworkable, and it leads us down the 
wrong path.
  As you have mentioned, we are now under 1,400 days away from the 
largest tax increase America has ever seen with the expiration of the 
current tax rate and the current tax schemes as it relates to the death 
tax.
  We don't know if those are the right ones or not, but they are the 
ones we have got. The ones we have had in place since 2001, I think, in 
no small part have contributed to the growth of this economy, have 
contributed to taxpayers being able to have more of their own money, to 
put that investment back into their families, businesses and other 
things. The current tax rates are working, and to the extent that they 
expire and have automatic increases is unfortunate.
  I understand we are about out of time. I appreciate getting to join 
you late in the hour.
  Mr. SHUSTER. We certainly appreciate you coming here over the past 
several weeks. It is always good to have a CPA on the floor to be able 
to correct us when we spout off a number that is not quite accurate. 
You have been able to do that a number of times with us. We appreciate 
it.
  I just want to point out again to people that may be watching 
tonight, such as a CPA, a small business owner. I was a small business 
owner. We all have children. Your children, I know, are grown now.
  Mr. CONAWAY. Grandchildren.
  Mr. SHUSTER. But it is important in America that small business 
owners and families are not burdened with these heavy taxes. We have to 
keep them low.
  I think the gentleman from Kentucky might have a final passing word.
  Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. I want to thank everybody for joining us. For 
those of you who are regulars and are corresponding with us, we 
appreciate your joining us and contacting us at 
[email protected].
  We believe that the key is not raising taxes; it is creating 
taxpayers to project economic growth and opportunity for the future. 
Our backbone is of small business owners that have created the jobs, 
created the vision, have created the innovation that have help make 
this country great. We want to continue standing by you and the working 
families of America.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, we yield back the balance of our time.

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