Mr. Speaker,  today I rise in opposition to H.R. 4297, the Tax Reconciliation Conference Report.  This gimmick-laden piece of legislation will require taxpayers to borrow another $70 billion so that the wealthiest Americans can keep their taxes low in 2009 and 2010.  What kind of priorities favor the wealthy in the future over working families today?  We can ill afford the continued “tax cut and spend” mentality that has marked the House during the last few years.  Without a change in fiscal policy, future generations will be buried under a mountain of debt created by the Republican Congress. 

H.R. 4297 includes a two year extension of the capital gains and dividend tax cuts, which are not scheduled to expire until 2008.  Nearly half of these tax cuts will go directly into the pockets of the 1 in 500 taxpayers who earn more than $1 million per year.  The contrast is stark: those who earn between $40,000 and $50,000 will see an average tax cut of $46, while those earning more than $1 million will save an average of $42,000 in taxes.   More egregiously, those earning over $10 million will receive an average $500,000 tax cut per year. 

Regardless of what the Republicans claim, this legislation disproportionately favors the wealthiest Americans.  For taxpayers earning less than $100,000 per year, only 1 out of 7 benefit from the dividend tax reduction, and only 1 out of 20 benefit from the capital gains tax cut. 

Under this legislation, an additional 20 million middle class families will have their taxes raised in 2007 thanks to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).  Congress had an opportunity to exempt the middle class from this complicated tax that was created to prevent a very small group of high income families from avoiding income tax altogether.  Unfortunately, H.R. 4297 only offers a band aid to this massive problem, and more and more middle class families will have their taxes raised in the future because this Congress chose to cut taxes for multimillionaires instead. 

In addition, I am disappointed that unlike an early version of H.R. 4297, this bill does not include the extension of the Research and Development Tax Credit, which expired in December.  I am a cosponsor of a bill to make the Research and Development Tax Credit permanent, as it keeps American companies competitive and provides a strong incentive for businesses to invest in the future and create jobs. 

This year, we have a projected deficit of more than $330 billion.  We will spend billions more in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as rebuilding the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.  We simply cannot afford all of these emergency expenses while cutting taxes for the richest Americans. 

I urge my colleagues to join me in rejecting the conference report and supporting responsible tax policies that benefit all Americans, not just the wealthiest.