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CONGRESSMAN RICHARD E. NEAL
DEMOCRAT FROM MASSACHUSETTS
COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS
CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE ON SELECT REVENUE MEASURES
2208 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON, DC 20515
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – June 25, 2008
CONTACT: William Tranghese (202) 225-5601
NEAL STATEMENT ON PASSAGE OF BIPARTISAN AMT BILL
Will provide tax relief to more than 25 million families
(WASHINGTON) Congressman Richard E. Neal, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures, made the following statement today after the House of Representatives passed legislation that would provide tax relief for more 25 million Americans by protecting them from the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). Congressman Neal has for many years lead the effort in the U.S House of Representatives to reform or repeal the AMT.
“There is some urgency to the bill we have passed today. If we do not approve this patch soon, more than 25 million American families will be forced to pay higher taxes. And 84% of those 25 million earn less than $200,000 a year.
In my district alone, the number of families paying AMT will jump from 7,920 to 69,919. Approximately 21,549 of those families earn between $75,000 and $100,000 annually. Is this really the taxpayer the AMT was meant to hit? Relief from the AMT has been an annual pilgrimage for Congress. But we simply have to do it.
However, this tax relief costs more than $60 billion. To put that figure into context, we currently spend that amount every 4 months in Iraq. We cannot keep passing the cost of war and the cost of tax cuts onto our children and grandchildren. It is simply unacceptable.
So we will ask hedge fund managers and private equity titans to pay the same rate of taxes we all pay on our income. We ask the Big Five oil companies to forgo part of the recent tax incentives the Congress enacted for domestic companies. Does Exxon really need a tax cut to produce oil here in the United States? At $140 a barrel, I think the American people feel that’s more than enough incentive.
Some of our Republican colleagues will urge us to drop all the offsets since President Bush has indicated he will veto the bill. But even the Republican head of the National Association of manufacturers called our offsets the “least painful” of any. At some point, they have to choose fiscal sanity over party fealty.
I am pleased that this bill passed with such a comfortable margin today,” said Congressman Richard E. Neal.
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