Congressman Alan Grayson (D-Orlando) late Thursday night voted against the Middle Class Tax Relief Act (H.R. 4853).
Congressman Grayson said, “This bill gives more money to the rich and their families, who do not need it. Large parts of it will not create a single job, but it will add hundreds of billions of dollars to the national deficit and debt. We cannot afford it and I do not support it.”
The Congressman opposes many of the bad provisions in the bill, including:
- Extending the Bush tax cuts for the richest of the rich, which will add an estimated $150 billion to the federal deficit over the next two years;
- Revamping the estate tax to give six thousand of the richest families in the country an additional $23 billion to boost their children’s trust funds, without creating jobs or stimulating the economy;
- Giving away $150 billion in corporate taxes, by allowing businesses to write off all capital expenditures in 2011 for items made in foreign countries, and items that they would have purchased anyway, which effectively will “zero out” the corporate income tax; and
- Cutting the payroll taxes that fund Social Security, which creates the risk of weakening the program and/or forcing a reduction in benefits.
In addition, the Congressman opposed the process by which the bill worked its way through Congress.
“We got the bum rush. The President and Senate Republicans shut everyone else out of the negotiations. Congressional leaders shoved this bill through without a single hearing. We should not be giving away hundreds of billions of dollars to people who don’t need it, without asking questions in committees, marking up the legislation, or reading the bill,” Congressman Grayson added.
Congressman Grayson has already voted for tax cuts for individuals making less than $200,000 ($250,000 for couples) and the extension of unemployment benefits.
