[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 11838]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            OBAMA TAX HIKES

                                 ______
                                 

                              HON. TED POE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 19, 2012

  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, at a time when businesses in this 
country are navigating through waves of distress, the administration 
wants to deliver a tsunami in the form of tax increases. Taxing, 
taxing, taxing is about the only solution that it can come up with. But 
what it doesn't seem to realize is how it's failed all of us. It's 
shrinking the economy even more and is shrinking paychecks too. If the 
administration lets the Bush era tax cuts expire, 700,000 jobs will be 
destroyed. And out of those jobs, 56,800 will be in Texas.
  The administration has had its chances to restore financial stability 
in this country without creating tax hikes. These tax increases not 
only target the wealthy. These taxes will actually take hard strikes at 
small businesses and the middle class. Contrary to what the 
administration believes, this is not fair.
  Ernst & Young's latest study breaks it down just right. It examined 
the long-term impacts of increasing top tax rates. And let me tell you, 
they're not good. The long-run economic consequences are severe. Here 
it goes.
  The administration proposes a one-year extension of the current tax 
rates for households making $250,000 or less. Then, those making 
$250,000 or more, including a lot of small businesses that file under 
the individual rate, will pay the tax rates prior to the Bush era. That 
means the top rate will go from 35 percent to 39.6 percent. Tax rates 
for the other top income tax bracket will go from 33 percent to 36 
percent.
  But this isn't all of them. The administration continues to tax. 
Medicare tax will go from 2.9 percent to 3.8 percent. A new 3.8 percent 
tax will be implemented on investment income. And last but not least, 
higher taxes on capital gains and dividends.
  So, what does this total and how does it all play out? The 
combination of all these taxes will take the top individual income tax 
rate from 35 percent to 44.7 percent next year. And beware; this 
doesn't include all of the Obamacare taxes that will empty your wallet 
in 2013.
  What does this do? Approximately 2 million businesses will be 
affected by these tax hikes. This will take capital out of the hands of 
business owners and reduced labor supply and the United States will 
lose $200 billion in economic output. And extending the rates for 
families earning less than $250,000 will cost us $175 billion dollars 
next year. As bad as this sounds already, the tax hikes will likely 
force American employers to trim their workers' pay by 1.8 percent.
  What will happen? Business firms will be hit hard. We will see 
patterns of less hiring, less investment in businesses, and retarded 
growth of these businesses in their sector. Sixty million Americans are 
small business employees. About two out of three jobs was created by a 
small business. And the administration is trying to take this away from 
us.
  We've had enough of their fun with taxes. As someone who claims his 
focus to be ``rebuilding the economy,'' he is doing quite the opposite. 
Our lives now revolve around taxes and this is all thanks to our 
nation's leader who thinks he can tax our way into economic prosperity. 
It doesn't take a math genius to figure out that these tax numbers are 
not the solution to a damaged economy. His idea that taxing the wealthy 
won't hurt this economy is false. If his job is to stifle job creation, 
create class warfare, and even further damage our market, then he's 
really done it well.
  We can't afford to let this happen.
  We can't afford to lose more than 700,000 jobs.
  We can't afford to give more control to our government.
  And that's just the way it is.

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