Senate Floor Speech
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
October 11, 2004 -- Page: S11202

AMERICAN JOBS CREATION ACT OF 2004 -- CONFERENCE REPORT

MRS. HUTCHISON. Thank you, Mr. President. I thank the Senator from Iowa, the distinguished chairman of the committee. I also thank the chairman and ranking member of the Finance Committee for working with the House to produce an excellent bill which will reduce taxes on more people in our country and, therefore, help this economy to continue the recovery.

I am very pleased. I have heard the debate on the tax credit for employers for Guard and Reserve units. I know all of us will be working to try to assure that this is done. Our Guard and Reserve units have stepped up to the plate.

I have been to Iraq. I have been to Afghanistan. I have visited with Guard troops who are on their second and third call who didn't expect this kind of activity when they signed up. But they are there doing their job, and doing a great job.

On the other hand, the people at home are, too. The employers are, too. The families are, too. They are sacrificing as well. I think help for families, help for the men and women on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places, and help for the employers is certainly something we should do in the right way.

I am very pleased we are going to continue to work on this issue. We need to do everything we can to support our young men and women in the field and the people who are supporting them at home.

I will never forget when I was visiting a base in Saudi Arabia and asked one of the young guardsmen what was their biggest problem, thinking he was going to say something about his tour of duty, or something on the ground there. He said, My biggest problem is my wife can't get a pediatrician for our child at home who is having heart problems. I said we can't let this happen. We have to make sure we are giving them all the support they need.

This is a good bill. It is a bill that is going to help our manufacturers in this country compete on a level playing field.

A ruling by the World Trade Organization found our existing extra-territorial income tax regime was prohibited under an international treaty. Therefore, the European Union imposed retaliatory sanctions on a variety of United States products in March of this year. These tariffs have increased every month we have not acted. They are now at 12 percent. A tariff like that can be the difference between whether an American product can be purchased overseas, whether it gets in and can compete on a level playing field.

We will restructure our Tax Code for businesses in order to replace the ETI and end the confiscatory tariffs that are hurting manufacturers in this country.

At a time when our country is losing manufacturing jobs, we talk about outsourcing every day. We have to act to give our manufacturers every possible advantage we can to be competitive with Europe. That is what the heart of this bill is. It is very important for jobs in our country. It is very important for the manufacturers who are trying to keep jobs in our country to be able to have that level playing field. I am very pleased about that.

In addition, there is a broad range of manufacturers who are helped, including certain oil and gas producers. We know with the prices of oil and gas so high right now that we need to encourage our producers to be out there cutting costs wherever possible, and hopefully this will allow them to be able to produce more in our country and create those manufacturing jobs.

Lastly, there is a sales tax deduction that is very important to my State and six other States in our country. Some States in America do not have a State income tax. That doesn't mean our State taxpayers aren't paying taxes. We pay very high, substantial sales taxes and we pay high property taxes. Some of those are going up. For us not to have a deduction for our State sales taxes on our Federal income taxes like those who pay an income tax do is unfair.

That inequity is eliminated in this bill for the next 2 years. We will be able now to have equity in our Tax Code. We will now be able to give those in a non-income tax State the ability to deduct sales taxes just as those who pay income taxes are able to do. In fact, it allows people in an income-tax State to choose to deduct sales taxes instead of income taxes if they want to. It is for everyone.

But in reality, the States that have been shortchanged are the ones that choose to tax with sales tax and rather than income tax. That inequity is going to go away in this bill. It will mean $300 on average for every family in Texas. That is going to be welcome news for people who have had to live with this inequity since 1986.

Thank you. I urge adoption of this very important bill.