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| The Largest Tax Increase in American History |
March 30, 2007 |
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Dear Friends,
The Democrats narrowly passed a budget on Thursday, but they couldn`t even get half the House to support it. It passed 216-210. Nine members were absent. When the fifteen minutes normally allowed to vote had expired, some 35 Democrats still had yet to register their preference. Most of them were centrist Democrats who were reluctant to vote for a budget that assumes the largest tax increase in American history.
Not all of them could vote "No" the way they many really wanted to. After a few more minutes of counting and jawboning, they cast their votes.
The budget is a blueprint, a chart for the direction to go in with spending and taxes.
The Democrat budget assumes tax increases of $392,000,000,000 over the next five years. $392 billion. That means the budget plans on none of the tax relief we passed in 2001 and 2003 to become permanent. We will go back to having a marriage penalty. The child tax credit will be cut in half. The 10 percent tax bracket will go away and income taxes will go back up across the board. The death tax will come back and capital gains and dividend taxes will go back up. Everything. The whole enchilada.
The budget plans for large increases in spending over the President`s budget proposal. $20 billion more than the President`s budget. That`s on top of the $20 billion in little extras added to the supplemental for spinach farmers, shrimp fishermen and peanut storage.
There have been times that I have voted against Republican budgets -- in fact, I voted against the alternative budget proposed by Republican Paul Ryan on Thursday. Ryan`s budget froze all non-defense spending.
On some issues, the new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has tried to chart a course toward the middle. On fiscal issues, she is clearly not. Large spending increases and the largest tax increase in American history.
Wish you were here,
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