[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13939]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            PAY A FAIR SHARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Well, I was initially very supportive of the President's 
proposed Buffett tax based on the premise that no millionaire or 
billionaire should pay a lower tax rate than a checkout clerk at the 
Albertsons supermarket or a small business owner who only earns $40,000 
a year. It seemed fair to me. But, you know, then I started listening 
to the Republican response, and it's pretty heavy and it really gives 
you pause to think about whether or not this is a good idea for our 
country. It's class warfare. It will hurt job creation. You know, these 
are arguments. It won't raise money. These are arguments that certainly 
are very, very telling.
  In fact, I have some direct quotes from one Representative: ``This is 
really the Dr. Kevorkian plan for our economy. It will kill jobs, kill 
businesses, and yes, kill even the higher tax revenues that these 
suicidal tax increasers hope to gain.''
  Another Representative: ``Class warfare may win political campaigns, 
but it doesn't spur economic growth. Raising the capital gains tax may 
garner political capital, but it will not create any jobs.''
  And then, finally, of course: ``When are we going to get it? We do 
not have a revenue problem in this Congress; we have a spending 
problem.''
  Those are heavy criticisms. And just think if they proved true what a 
disaster it would be for America. Now, of course, these criticisms were 
all leveled in 1993, the last time we had a Democratic President 
propose that millionaires and billionaires should pay a fair rate of 
taxes in this country.
  The first one was from Representative Christopher Cox, a total idiot 
who ran the Securities and Exchange Commission while Wall Street 
gambled our economy into the tank. He said the part about killing jobs, 
and we wouldn't get jobs and we wouldn't get higher revenues.
  Well, actually, with the Clinton tax increases, we did get higher 
revenues, we did balance the budget, we did pay off debt, and we had 
3.8 percent unemployment. And we were asking the job creators, the 
millionaires and billionaires, to pay a fair share. I guess Chris was 
wrong.
  Well, let's see, the second one was from former Representative Pryce 
of Ohio about political capital not creating any jobs. Well, we already 
addressed that. We had 3.8 percent unemployment.
  What have they done to create a single job so far this year? Nothing. 
In fact, they eliminated jobs. But, you know, that's because we want to 
give the job creators a break. We don't want to tax them, all to 
protect tax cuts.
  And then, finally, the final quote about we don't have a revenue 
problem; we have a spending problem is from then Representative 
Boehner, now Speaker Boehner.
  Now, of course, our taxes are at 15 percent of our gross domestic 
product, considerably lower than the percent of taxes that were levied 
in the Reagan era. And, you know, we do have a revenue problem, $5 
trillion of tax cuts over the last decade, $5 trillion, 5 thousand 
billion dollars of tax cuts, heavily oriented toward the job creators--
the millionaires and the billionaires.
  Where are the jobs? Where are the jobs?
  It doesn't work. First it was 8 years of Bush tax cuts, then 2 years 
of Bush-Obama tax cuts, and now we have President Obama's further 
proposed tax cuts.
  Tax cuts don't create jobs.
  Now, I think, actually, now I have considered their arguments, the 
President's right. Billionaire hedge fund speculators on Wall Street, 
let's think about it. Their rate of taxation is 15 percent on billions 
of dollars of income. A small business owner, $50,000 a year, whoa, 
more than twice that. Army captain, just back from defending America in 
Afghanistan, whoa, more than twice that.
  Who gives more value to this society, the parasite on Wall Street who 
is speculating and driving up the price of our fuel and making billions 
of dollars doing it or the Army captain or the small business owner, 
the real job creators?
  We can, by levying a fair rate of taxes on the millionaires and 
billionaires under the Buffett tax--the best investor in this country, 
who thinks this is the direction we should go--we can both create jobs, 
stabilize the economy, get down the deficit, and continue to fund 
critical programs. Ironically, in the grand deal that was adopted back 
here a month ago that I voted against, there was only one specified 
cut, one cut specified in that bill--graduate student financial aid. 
That's because at the country club they don't meet anybody who can't 
put their kids through medical school.
  We need doctors. We need other professionals. We need to help the 
next generation succeed, education and infrastructure investment, and 
we need money to help pay for it.

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