‘This is not a vote on fixing the AMT, this is a vote to raise taxes’



Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell spoke on the Senate floor Thursday regarding the Democrats’ AMT proposal to cut taxes by raising taxes:



“Before we cast our votes this morning, Americans should know exactly what we’re voting on: This is not a vote on fixing the AMT, this is a vote to raise taxes.



“Every year for the last four years Republicans in Congress have found a way, usually by May, to correct a glitch in the tax code that threatens to affects more and more families each year.



“This is a middle-class tax that was never meant to be. It was created to make sure that 155 super-rich families couldn’t avoid paying taxes. But because the people who wrote it didn’t account for inflation, it now threatens about 25 million middle-class families.



“Republicans have always found a way to deal with this problem with the tax laws, and we always did it without raising taxes.



“But the Democrats who now control Congress have a different view. They don’t want to protect the 25 million Americans who will get hit by this glitch over the next few months unless Republicans agree to raise taxes on other Americans in the process.



“Republicans will respond to this proposal in the same way we’ve responded to it publicly and privately all year: No deal. No tax hike.



“Democrats thought they could force us into accepting their proposal by waiting until the last days of the session to call a vote. And they were wrong.



“What they’ve forced instead is a crisis. Unless they fix this glitch, millions of Americans — including more than three million in New York, 174,000 in Kentucky, 98,000 in Nevada, and 819,000 in Illinois — will get a big surprise when they sit down to do their taxes over the next few months.



“Millions more will face delays in getting the tax refund checks they count on every year.



“Democrats need to find a way to fix this problem before it gets even worse. We’ve been warning them about it all year. The senior Republican on the Finance Committee reminded us yesterday he’s spoken on the Senate floor on this issue no fewer than 12 times since January. The Treasury Secretary sent us urgent letters. The IRS sent us urgent letters. There is no excuse for the delay.



“This is a problem we can solve. We have shown the Democrats how. We don’t need the Majority Leader to do a backflip off the Secretary’s chair, as he suggested yesterday. We want him to give us a fix that does not raise taxes. This is fair. This is simple. This will work. And this will not put the Majority Leader or anyone else at any risk of physical harm.



“So far Democrats have refused our offer. And so here we are: about to vote on a massive tax hike we know won’t pass the Senate, and which we know the President would not sign even if it did — instead of doing our job and fixing this middle-class tax hike.



“With all due respect, this is no way to legislate. And let me be very clear to my colleagues across the aisle: Republicans will not raise taxes in exchange for blocking a tax that was never meant to be. Our position has never been a secret. Democrats have known it all year.



“I will vote against this massive tax hike. I urge my colleagues to do the same.”



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