[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5567]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                THE RYAN BUDGET HAS THE WRONG PRIORITIES

  (Mr. KILDEE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. KILDEE. Madam Speaker, we are at that time of the year when we 
are dealing with another set of budget decisions. A budget is supposed 
to be a demonstration of this Congress' and our Nation's values and 
priorities, a plan that helps lift people up and ensure that everyone, 
if you play by the rules, has got a fair shot at success.
  But budgets require tough choices.
  The Ryan budget, which passed out of committee yesterday, 
unfortunately chooses to make things more difficult for hardworking 
middle class Americans in order to subsidize big tax breaks to big oil 
companies, to multinational corporations, and to the wealthiest 
Americans.
  Yesterday, I introduced a very simple amendment to the Ryan budget in 
the Budget Committee, one that would simply say this: if you make more 
than $1 million, which is a very small percentage--97 percent of small 
business owners make less than that--you pay your fair share. Warren 
Buffett famously observed that he pays a lower tax rate than his own 
secretary. My amendment would have said, if you make over $1 million, 
you pay at least 30 percent. Unfortunately, that amendment failed on a 
party-line vote.
  I hope we have an opportunity to offer that amendment here on the 
floor, and I urge my colleagues, if they have the chance to do so, to 
support that.

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