Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett got into the Olympic spirt on the House floor today in a speech opposing the GOP's proposed extension of the Bush Tax Cuts for those making over $250,000 a year. The GOP proposal would also allow other tax credits that help working families expire, including the American Opportunity Tax Credit that Rep. Doggett authored to make college more affordable for millions of families.
“Now is not the time to let Republicans raise taxes on thousands of Texas families to provide more tax breaks for the privileged few. If there were an Olympic medal for protecting those sitting atop the economic ladder, at the expense of those trying to get a foothold on the first couple of rungs, these Republicans would go gold without any competition.”
-Rep. Lloyd Doggett
The Congressman's full statement is transcribed below the fold.
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“Now is not the time to let the Republicans raise taxes on thousands of Texas families in order to provide more tax breaks for a privileged few. Republicans would hike the taxes by almost $500 for a married Marine corporal with four years of service and two children living in Schertz. That is wrong. Nor is this the time for Republicans to tax opportunity. A single mom, working as a nurse, who is helping her daughter attend an Alamo College or Texas State or ACC, would be denied the $2,500 higher education tax credit that I authored. All of this, in the very same bill that would give a Republican who earns a million dollars a tax cut next year that is larger than that Marine or that nurse would earn for an entire year.
“If there were an Olympic medal for protecting those sitting atop the economic ladder, at the expense of those trying to get a foothold on the first couple of rungs, these Republicans would go gold without any competition.
“Nor has this ‘trickle down’ Republican approach grown our jobs and our economy. Extending tax breaks for those at the very top, it was done in 2010 over my objection. It hasn’t grown jobs in the past year any more than it helped to avoid the Bush-Cheney recession.
“As for this much ballyhooed Ernst and Young report, it was bought and paid for by the same millionaires that are going to get the tax break bigger than what the nurse or marine earns all of next year, along with a few large corporations who paid for the report. It is not credible. It is not just to see some Americans have to lose tax breaks in order to help the few gain even more.”
