Restoring Sales Tax Deductibility
Congressman Baird continues working to ensure that Washington State
residents are able to deduct their state sales taxes from their federal
income taxes. Restoring fairness to the tax code and making sure
Washington State residents are treated equitably by the tax system will
continue to be one of the Congressman's top priorities. Congressman
Baird feels very strongly that his constituents should be treated
equally under the law by the federal government, regardless of the
local tax system elected by the state government.
Because of Congressman Baird's leadership, Washington state taxpayers can now deduct state sales tax
from their federal income tax returns. This deduction saves Washington
state families more than $475 million every year on their federal
income tax returns.
To pass this law, Congressman Baird worked tirelessly to build a strong
bipartisan coalition of lawmakers from seven states that, like
Washington, have state sales taxes but no state income tax. Congressman
Baird succeeded in changing the law and making sales tax deductibility
a reality for the last four years. A fellow member of Congress declared
Congressman Baird the "father of sales tax deductibility."
As a Member of the Budget Committee, Congressman Baird was successful
in working with his colleagues from both sides of the aisle to ensure
that a provision allowing for the ten year extension of the sales tax
deduction was included in the Fiscal Year 2009 Budget. This is an
important next step towards making sales tax deductibility permanent.
In addition, one of Congressman Baird's first acts in the 111th
Congress was to reintroduce legislation to make the sales tax deduction
permanent. This legislation has attracted a large number of bipartisan
cosponsors from sales tax states. Congressman Baird will continue to
push for passage of this important legislation.
Providing Capital for Small Businesses
Access to affordable financing and capital is one of the chief
obstacles preventing small business growth. Congressman Baird has
championed the Business Retained Income During Growth and Expansion
(BRIDGE) Act to allow fast-growing small and mid-sized businesses to
defer a portion of their federal income tax liability for two years in
order to invest the money in the growth of their businesses. When
implemented, this proposal is expected to create over 900,000 new jobs
in three years. It will also generate new revenue for the federal
government when the deferred taxes are gradually paid back with
interest by the businesses.
Preserving Our Buy America Law
Congressman Baird has fought to preserve the "Buy America" provision in
our federal transportation laws. The Buy America law requires that
federally-funded transportation projects use domestic iron and steel.
The law was put into place to ensure that, when taxpayer money is spent
on highway projects, these expenditures stimulate United States
production and job creation.
Buy America is important because it helps working men and women in
Southwest Washington and throughout the United States keep their jobs
and earn decent, living wages. Buy America also strengthens our
domestic steel industry, which is critical to our national security and
necessary for our ability to rebuild after a devastating natural
disaster or terrorist attack.
Congressman Baird learned that some states and the Federal Highway
Administration were attempting to evade Buy America requirements and
use foreign steel. He introduced legislation that would strengthen
enforcement of the Buy America law. He has also called for
congressional oversight hearings, met with Transportation Secretary
Norman Mineta, and sent letters to President Bush, Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff, and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.
Preventing the Loss of Manufacturing Jobs
Rep. Baird is deeply concerned by the loss of American manufacturing
jobs and believes the Congress and President should review all U.S.
trade agreements to ensure that our trading partners comply with those
agreements. To that end, Congressman Baird believes our government
must:
- Review China's World Trade Organization (WTO) accession agreement, to ensure full compliance by our trading partners.
- Press our Asian trading partners to stop manipulating their currencies to gain trade advantages.
- Support
tax advantages for U.S. manufacturers that produce goods domestically
and repeal tax breaks that encourage U.S. companies to incorporate
overseas.
- Refuse to sign future trade
agreements that lack the International Labor Organization core labor
standards and stringent environmental protections.
- Ensure foreign governments do not violate trade obligations by unfairly subsidizing their exports to the U.S.
- Strengthen
technical education for our students in vocational schools and
community colleges and provide training for workers who have been
displaced by foreign trade.
Raising the Minimum Wage
Congressman Baird believes that workers in this country should earn a
living wage that can support a family. Unfortunately, under the federal
minimum wage, employees who work 40 hours a week would earn only
$10,712 a year, an income that is $2,600 below the poverty level for a
family of three.
That is why Congressman Baird was a cosponsor of the Fair Minimum Wage
Act. This legislation gradually raises the minimum wage from $5.15 an
hour to $7.25 an hour over 26 months. In 2007, this important
legislation was passed by the House and Senate and signed into law.
Reducing the Cost of Health Care
Because of the high cost of health care coverage, many businesses
simply cannot afford to provide insurance to their employees. At the
same time, workers are finding it harder and harder to afford the
every-rising cost of health insurance.
Congressman Baird believes that we must reform the health care system
in order to lower skyrocketing costs and expand coverage to the nearly
47 million Americans who are currently uninsured.
To achieve these goals, Congressman Baird has introduced bipartisan legislation called the Healthy Americans Act.
The Healthy Americans Act is a comprehensive health care proposal. The
proposal maintains consumer choice and guarantees private health care
coverage that cannot be taken away and is at least as good as that
offered to Members of Congress and Senators.
The Healthy Americans Act guarantees private health insurance for all Americans by:
- Ensuring that every American has a
high-quality, private health care plan that is comparable to what
Members of Congress now enjoy.
- Establishing a sliding scale of health care premium assistance for low-income Americans.
- Creating a health care tax credit to help Americans cover the cost of their health care plan.
- Requiring every American to purchase a private health care plan.
The Healthy Americans Act eliminates the link between employment and health care by:
- Ending the employer health care tax deduction and replacing it with a personal tax credit.
- Requiring
employers who currently provide employee health benefits to convert
their health care premiums into higher wages that employees will use to
purchase their own private health insurance for the first four years.
- Requiring
employers to make payments to the federal government, on a sliding
scale depending on the number of employees, to fund premium subsidies.
Employers who do not currently provide health benefits will be required
to begin making phased-in payments immediately; after four years, all
employers will be making these payments.
The Healthy Americans Act protects consumers by:
- Prohibiting discrimination against beneficiaries based on health status or genetics.
- Allowing
plans to use financial incentives to reward beneficiaries who enroll in
wellness programs or otherwise pursue a healthy lifestyle.
- Establishing
a Health Help Agency in each state to coordinate payments from
employers, individuals and government; coordinate enrollment of
individuals in private health care plans; and provide consumers with
unbiased information about competing health care plans.
- Requiring insurers to use standardized common forms to make health care more transparent for consumers.
- Providing
additional research and education efforts on the comparative
effectiveness of health care items to ensure that consumers receive
effective, quality care.
- Allowing beneficiaries to purchase additional coverage above and beyond the federal standard if they choose.
- Maintaining
employer-based retiree health plan for individuals who are already
retired and Medicare, and preserving health plans negotiated as part of
a collective bargaining agreement for as long as nine years.
The Healthy Americans Act reallocates federal resources by:
- Phasing out the Disproportionate
Share Hospital payments program, which provides compensation to
hospitals treating the uninsured. Universal coverage will obviate the
need for this program.
- Phasing out the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in favor of coverage under the Healthy Americans Act.
- Ending non-supplemental Medicaid and providing basic health care for low income Americans.
According to a comprehensive review and score by the nonpartisan Lewin
Group, the Healthy Americans Act will increase coverage and decrease
costs by:
- Providing health care coverage to 99% of Americans.
- Cutting
national spending on health care, both public and private, and creating
a long term savings of $1.48 trillion over the next ten years.
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