Date: 2007-09-19
Speaker: DAVID DAVIS (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Tennessee

I thank my friend from California. Thank you for your leadership tonight. Thank you for pointing out some of our spending and taxing waste. I would like to thank my colleagues that have spoken before me tonight. I have been absolutely pleased with the group of freshmen Republicans that I came in with. a group of men and women that are very honorable. willing to work hard and do the right things. Thank you so much for serving with me in Washington. I look back at one of my favorite Presidents. a President that was enjoyed by -Republicans. conservative Democrats. independents. and that President was Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan once said. "We dont have a trillion dollar debt because we havent taxed enough. We have a trillion dollar debt because we spend too much." It goes right back to what we have been saying. spending then taxing. There are many people sitting around their kitchen tables around America tonight trying to decide just how they are going to put their budget together. how they are going to make their car payment. how they are going to send Junior to school. Sissy to school. how they are going to pay for their health insurance. Those families are having to make hard decisions. The Governmeat._ this Congress could learn from those Americans sitting around kitchen tables. I did come from the mountains of east Tennessee. Those people back in the mountains of east Tennessee have a lot of common sense. They have enough common sense to know that you cant spend more than you take in. and you cant tax people to death and expect success. That is exactly what this Congress is doing. According to the Congressional Research Service. the Presidents program of comprehensive tax reforms. President Bushs tax reforms and the congressional Republicans when they were in charge. those tax reliefs were welltimed to respond to a weak economy. My colleagues have spoken about it. We had terrorist attacks. We have had natural disasters. That tax relief enacted in 2001 granted immediate tax rebates. reduced marginal tax rates. and lowered the marriage tax penalty. It actually allowed Americans to keep more of their money in their pocket so moms and dads can take care of their families. My wife and I have two children. We fundamentally believe that we can take care of our children better than some bureaucrat in Washington. D.C. I think its just common sense. I think thee are many people across America. it doesnt matter what party youre part of. it doesnt matter if youre Republican. Democrat or independent. I have just got to feel that you believe you can spend your money better than Washington can as well. Then. to go on. the tax relief of 2003 accelerated the muchanticipated and successful tax cuts of 2001. Those tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 actually strengthened our economy. The Republican tax relief has seen nearly 4 straight years of economic growth. while adding 7.5 million new jobs into our economy. That is the success that MICHELE BACHMANN spoke about. Things are going very well. and I am glad to see that. The Congressional Budget Office confirmed that the tax cuts of 2003 helped boost Federal revenues by 68 percent. Again. its not partisan. It works every time. When Democrat John F. Kennedy cut taxes. the tax increase into the Federal Government increased. The economy got Septereber 19. 2007 stronger. Ithappened when Reagan did it. and it-.happened when Bush did it. It is not partisan. it is just fact. We must make the successful tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 permanent. If they are not made permanent. which I am convinced that this new holdontoyourwallet Congress is not interested in doing. heres what will happen: 84 million women will see their taxes increase by $1.970. If youre female and youre listening to me. this Congress is going to -raise your taxes .by $1.970. Fortyeight million married couples will see their taxes increase by $2.726. Fortytwo million fimilies with children would see their tax bill go up $2.084. Twentysix million small business owners would see a devastating $3.637 tax increase. the very small businesses that are creating the jobs in the economy. Five million lowincome individuals and couples will no longer be exempt from individual income taxes. We must make the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent. Unfortunately. I am convinced that we will not see those tax cuts made permanent under the spending I see going on on the floor of this House. When we see those tax cuts start to be repealed. we are going to start to see the economic growth actually come to an end. Washington Democrats have passed a fiscal blueprint that raises taxes by almost $400 billion on millions of Americans in one fell swoop. As part of their illgotten budget. taxpayers in Tennessee will not be allowed to deduct their sales tax from their Federal income tax. Taxes on small businesses. as I said earlier. will go up. The child tax credit will decrease from $1.000 to $500. The marriage penalty is coming back. Residents of the First Congressional District in Tennessees average tax expense is going up over $2.000. The definition of a small business will decrease from $400.000 to $200.000. Dividends will no longer be taxed at the personal gains rate. thereby increasing the double taxation on dividends by as much as 62 percent. People all across America voted for change. but they are not getting the change that they wanted in the last election. Over the last quarter there were a couple of bills we have talked about and passedon this floor without my vote. and one of them was the energybill. The energy- bill that we passed had plenty of taxes. very little - energy. The Democrat majority in the energy bill actually decided to tax American oil producers at the level of 16 billion extra dollars. American oil producers. If we take the ability for American oil producers to produce oil. it makes us more dependent on foreign oil. on countries that hate us and hate our freedoms. I think that is the wrong direction for America. I dont think that is the change that the American people voted for. Then we had the SCHIP bill. It sounds good. giving poor - children health care. We all certainly want to do that. 1I am for continuing. the program at its current level. But at the level that passed on this floor. the Heritage Institute said it will take 22 million new smokers to pay for the bill. Now. is there anyone in America that wants to see 22 million new children have to take up the habit of smoking to pay for a health care bill? In addition to that. they decided that wouldnt be enough to pay for it so they actually added a tax on your health insurance premiums. So if you buy your own health insurance. your taxes will go up. We have a choice between a bigger economy or bigger government. The majority party has made a choice. They are for bigger government. Congress has an approval rating down now to 11 percent. and I can certainly understand why we have such a low rating. We need to hold the line on spending. reduce earmarks. pass alineitem veto and crack down on worthless porkbarrel projects and be good stewards of the taxpayer. Remember. Ronald Reagan once said: "We dont have a trillion dollar debt because we havent taxed enough. We have a trillion dollar debt because we spend too much." I think we need to start running Congress like the American family has to run their household budget.