viaDelane Cunningham> Doggett and others noted that while Republicans have been adamant about finding ways to pay for other things, from unemployment insurance to the money the federal government needs for its highway funds, they appeared to have no problem with simply tacking the enormous cost of the tax cuts onto the deficit. Yesterday, the Ways and Means Committee was working on a markup of legislation for another short-term extension of the highway trust fund -- you know, the transportation infrastructure investment we desperately need in this country, said Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.). We were scratching and clawing to try to find an additional $10 billion over the next 10 months to try to keep some of these projects moving forward, and yet here today, we have another permanent change to the tax code at a cost of $287 billion over the next 10 years and not a nickel of it paid for. Kind also noted that his committee has passed 14 permanent tax cut bills so far at a cost of close to $900 billion. With Fridays full house vote, about two-thirds of the committees cuts have passed. Democrats also argued that the GOP was being hypocritical for another reason: In the tax reform plan that Republicans floated earlier this year, they ended the practice of bonus depreciation and some related tax cuts. You, six months ago, helped produce a package that eliminated this provision, and now you come here and you say you want it permanent, Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.), the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, told his Republican colleagues on the committee. This is acrobatics. This is congressional acrobatics. You are just spinning in an opposite direction, and youre making this place a circus. Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-Ohio), the sponsor of the cut, dismissed the objections, saying that since bonus depreciation has often been passed on a temporary basis since 2002, also without being paid for, it might as well be made permanent. We have had bonus depreciation, this tax policy, temporary, for over 10 years -- unpaid for -- supported by many on the other side of the aisle. Unpaid for, Tiberi said. Yet moving that policy forward for 10 more years, the same way its been paid for over 10 years, costs money. Bad policy, Tiberi added derisively. Even though we are giving for the first time certainty, predictability to people who actually create jobs in America, who must have a business plan and must make those big purchases. Amazing. The White House has threatened to veto the bill, along with the other permanent cuts. The Senate is also weighing the cuts, but is planning only short-term extensions.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 22:26:17 +0000
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