Floor debate scheduled to start between 3:00 and 3:30 pm on C-SPAN, Vote at approximately 5:30 pm or later.

Washington, D.C. - Today U.S. Rep. Gary Peters will introduce and debate an amendment on the floor of the House to insert a findings section about the Bush Tax Cuts of 2001 and 2003 into a Republican budget bill (H.R. 3582).  The Republican bill would mandate that the Congressional Budget Office use “dynamic scoring” to evaluate the macroeconomic impact of large tax cuts.  Dynamic scoring’s supporters back this legislation in large part because it can mask the costs of tax cuts while ignoring the multiplier effects investments in education, public health, and infrastructure can have.  The Peters Amendment contains factual statements and claims made by those who supported the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, and statistics to show how they stacked up against reality.

In 2003, Bush Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said that the Bush Tax Cuts would “create additional revenues for the federal government and pay for itself.” Since then, the non-partisan Congressional Budget office estimates that these cuts have added over $2 trillion to budget deficits from 2002-2011.

The Peters Amendment will force House Republicans to either acknowledge the massive impact the Bush Tax Cuts had on our federal budget deficits or vote against a short series of factual statements that will not alter the function of their bill.  Debate on the amendment is expected to start between 3:00 and 3:30 pm today. The final vote is expected after 5:30 pm.

“When the Republicans passed the Bush Tax Cuts, they told us that they would pay for themselves,” said U.S. Rep. Gary Peters. “We now know that this added over $2 trillion to the deficit and by forcing an up or down vote on this amendment, I’m giving House Republicans the opportunity to recognize this fact.”

The Peters Amendment would insert the following findings section to H.R. 3582:

(1)  On January 8, 2003, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said that President Bush believed that the tax cut package enacted in 2001 and expanded in 2003 would “create additional revenues for the federal government and pay for itself.”
(2)  Before the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 were enacted, the Congressional Budget Office projected gradually rising surpluses, from 2.7% of gross domestic product in 2001 to 5.3% of gross domestic product by 2011, with the federal government operating debt free by 2009.
(3)  The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 have added over $2 trillion to budget deficits from 2002-2011.
(4)  Despite signing the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 into law, President George W. Bush’s administration had, according to the Wall Street Journal, “the worst track record for job creation since the government began keeping records” in 1939.
(5)  From 2001 to 2009, gross domestic product grew at the slowest pace for any eight-year span since 1953.
(6)  Median household income declined during the Bush Administration for the first time since 1967, when this data began to be tracked. 

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