Senate Floor Speech
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
May 23, 2003 -- Page: S7073

JOBS AND GROWTH TAX RELIEF RECONCILIATION ACT, 2003 -- CONFERENCE REPORT

MRS. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished chairman of the committee for a job well done. This has been difficult. When I hear people talking about the tax bill and saying it is really amazing that we sunset some of these taxes and then bring them back--no one wanted to do that. The reason we have to sunset some of these taxes is that we had to work within an artificial constraint of $350 billion. That is why we have sunsets. What we certainly hope to do is not to sunset these tax cuts, the tax relief for hard-working American families, but instead to allow these to go forward. We will have to pass new legislation to do it.

Even with these modest tax cuts, we are going to spur the economy. People seem to forget that the purpose of this bill is to stimulate the economy. Eighty percent of the benefit of lowering the top rate to 35 percent goes to small businesses, and small businesses are going to reap the benefits. Small business is the job creator of America. It is small business we want to spur to create jobs. We want to put people back to work. The purpose of the legislation is to put people back to work and, in addition, to bring a little equity into the system.

Why in the world would we have a penalty on marriage? Why would a couple in Abilene, TX, who make $65,000 a year pay $1,000 more in taxes just because they got married? We go a long way toward eliminating the marriage penalty tax with this bill, and we are going to do everything we can to keep that in place from now on. There should not be a penalty for marriage. We should treat everyone equally. The marriage penalty bill was mine. It is a part of this legislation. I am going to do everything in my power to keep it forever, doubling the standard deduction and doubling the 15 percent bracket when people get married. That is for the lowest income and moderate-income people.

We are making a giant leap for child tax credits, from $600 to $1,000, because it is our families who are suffering so much today. We are going to do everything in our power to make the child tax credit absolutely permanent.

I want to discuss the State aid package because as we speak this morning, the Texas Legislature is in the last days of its regular session. They meet every other year for 6 months. They are in the last days of that session, and they are grappling with over $500 million. I spoke to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst yesterday. He and the Speaker of the House, Tom Craddick, are working diligently to cut the budget, to try to be fair, try not to cut services too much.

Help is on the way. My State of Texas is going to receive more than $1.2 billion in aid over the next 2 years. Under this proposal we are going to pass today, more than $510 million will go for Medicaid help. That is one of the biggest problems my State and many others have. $710 million will go in block grants for essential government services so they will be able to put this money where it is most needed--$510 million for Medicaid, $710 million in block grants. And it is going to be this year and next year. I hope this will resolve the problems of my State, as it has done as much as it can right now. The legislature is grappling with it. We are going to help my State and every State in America.

We understand the hard times because the Federal Government is feeling it, too. We have increased national defense responsibilities, increased homeland security, and our States have as well. So help is on the way.

I am very pleased to have been part of the group who worked on the State aid package to try to help. I have been reading the Texas papers. I see the problems we face.

The committee did an outstanding job. I commend the House. I commend the President of the United States for his leadership. The President didn't just sit on his laurels after doing a great job in Iraq, a wonderful job protecting the young men and women of our country; he said: We are going to put people back to work. The President deserves credit. The Senate and House deserve credit. We will put people back to work in this country.