[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 302]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            FAIRNESS IS VITAL TO THE SURVIVAL OF OUR SOCIETY

  (Mr. YARMUTH asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I was very pleased last night to hear 
President Obama talk about the defining issue of our time, the great 
economic disparity that we face in this society and the need to have a 
fair taxation system. Of course, what is fair is in the eye of the 
beholder, and the recent disclosure of Governor Mitt Romney's tax 
returns offers us a great laboratory to talk about that.
  On $21 million in income, he paid $3 million in taxes. The question 
for us shouldn't be whether $3 million is fair or whether a 13.9 
percent rate is fair. The question is, did he deserve a preferential 
rate? Did that $21 million of income educate anyone, did it create 
jobs, did it provide important research, did it build infrastructure? 
If it provided a broad societal benefit, then that preferential rate is 
justified. If not, then we can't explain to hardworking Americans how 
he pays a lower rate than they do.
  Fairness is incredibly vital to the survival of our society, and we 
need to emphasize that always.

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