Senate Floor Speech
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
February 6, 2002 -- Page: S384

MRS. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, so many of us wanted a stimulus package. The President asked for a stimulus package. We see the stock market continuing to go up and down, up and down. It certainly has not stabilized yet. We wanted to try to stimulate investment to try to make sure we would have an economy that would be able to remain strong as we are prosecuting a war for the very freedom of future generations in our country. But what we had before us was not a stimulus package. It was the end of a compromise without the compromise part.

There was no tax cut. There was no help for people who pay taxes. There was no stimulation for businesses that would invest in plant and equipment. And that is what we need to make sure we have those manufacturing jobs.

What I had hoped to do--and I had already filed the amendment--was to make permanent some of the tax cuts that are temporary over the next 10 years. I wanted to make permanent the marriage penalty relief that is in the tax bill that Congress has already passed and the President has signed but which could teeter in the next few years if we have a change in Congress.

Why should anyone have to pay a penalty because they get married? Why should they pay a different rate in a higher tax bracket when they get married as opposed to when they were single?

We are trying to correct the marriage penalty. Making marriage penalty relief permanent so people can count on it would be a stimulus.

Repeal of the death tax is one of the most important things Congress has done. Congress has finally acknowledged money that has been taxed when it was earned, taxed when it was invested, should not then be taxed when it is passed to future generations. What the death tax does is keep family-owned farms and ranches and small businesses from being passed to members of the family. Fifty percent of the family-owned businesses in this country do not make it to the second generation; 80 percent do not make it to the third generation. Who benefits from that? Certainly not the members of a family who have worked to create a business to give their children a chance.

What about the employees who work for that family business. When it changes hands, their livelihoods then are at stake. So who is it good for? It does not even help the Federal Government because the income is minuscule and would be totally overcoming to a thriving business with jobs that are stable that can contribute to our economy.

So we wanted to make repeal of the death tax permanent. We wanted to make repeal of the marriage penalty permanent. That was what we were trying to do to this bill. But now the bill is going to be pulled from the floor before we can offer these amendments.

I do not think that is sound economics. I do not think that is good for our country, and it certainly is not going to stabilize our economy.

So when you talk about people being disappointed, I think all of us are disappointed that we are not going to have a chance to offer our amendments. We had all day yesterday to offer our amendments, but we were held from offering the amendments and having votes. That is just not right.

We adopted an amendment offered by my fellow Senator from Missouri, Mr. Bond, that would have helped small businesses.

It would have been a huge help. It would have given them a $40,000 writeoff for investment in equipment. For small business that is huge. Otherwise, they would have had to depreciate it. Instead, they would have a writeoff that would have encouraged small businesses to make those capital investments that create jobs in America.

So we are missing a major opportunity. I will call on Senator Daschle to reconsider, after the cloture vote--which, hopefully, will fail because we have not been able to offer our amendments yet. We do not want to pass the bill that is before us because there is no stimulation in it. I ask the majority leader to reconsider because we would like to have a stimulus package that makes permanent the marriage penalty relief, that makes permanent the death tax repeal so businesses and family farms can be passed through the generations without being taxed by the Federal Government and made to sell assets at bargain basement prices and take away jobs from people who work on those farms and take away the ability of the children in a family to continue to make their livelihoods from that family farm. It would take away the opportunity to give small business a boost by giving them a writeoff of $40,000 over a 2-year period for capital investment.

I urge the majority leader to reconsider. Let's work with the President. Let's work with the Democrats and Republicans in Congress. Let's have a stimulus package that really stimulates.