Mr. DeFAZIO. Well, the Republicans are at it again. It would be funny if we weren't in such dire financial straits as the government is, thanks to a number of years of Republican rule.
During the Bush era, George Bush inherited a balanced budget, he inherited projections of a surplus for years to come, and paying down the debt of the United States substantially. Well, he went to work busily, and using restrictive legislative rules the Republicans passed massive tax cuts favoring the wealthiest of us. Those with estates over $5 million, those who earn over $250,000 a year got huge largess from the Republican Party.
Now, in a time of surplus, it didn't hurt too much. But then, George Bush launched an unnecessary war in Iraq and decided to pay for it off the books; i.e., he did not score it in the budget, and just every year declared it as an emergency as much as it might cost. So far, close to $700 billion has been spent on George Bush's war in Iraq.
[Time: 10:45]
Of course George Bush's tax cuts and his off-the-books spending and a massive expansion of government under total Republican rule, took us from a time of surplus to a time of massive deficits. George Bush set record after record with deficits during his Presidency, and he managed in 8 short years to double the debt that it had taken us more than 200 years to accumulate as a Nation. And the Republicans were all for it.
But now they would have us believe that their born-again fiscal conservatives, with a 19-page document with no specifics--and guess what it contains, this is how we are going to balance the budget, folks--more tax cuts for rich people. Oh, what a surprise. That will solve everything. They do have this cockamamie theory, and it is that if we give all of the money to the rich people, the rich people will go out and invest that money. When they invest that money, the little people will get jobs, and the little people will pay taxes because the rich people shouldn't. That is their budget, plain and simple.
Eliminate the estate tax. That would mean that if Bill Gates died tomorrow, and God forbid, I hope he is healthy and he won't, but if he did, the unrealized capital gains of his stock would then become nontaxable. No taxes would have ever been paid on that stock, passed on to his kids. If his kids invest it for a living under the Republican plan, they would earn capital gains and under their plan investors don't pay taxes. So you can have multi-generations of people accumulating more and more wealth who haven't paid a penny in taxes. But don't worry, the Republicans tell us, they will invest that money in America and put the little people to work. Well, no, maybe they will invest that money in China where labor is cheaper, or Mexico where labor is cheaper, or who knows where. Who knows how they will waste it. Who knows what new, speculative instruments they will come up with. Their so-called alternative would be funny if it wasn't so serious. But this is deadly serious.
President Obama is trying to dig us out of an incredibly deep hole and a very difficult time in the American economy. The radical deregulation of the Bush years and all of that wealth creation on Wall Street, which has now tanked, many people's pensions and their 401(k)s, it is killing jobs, we are trying to fix that, and we are trying to re-instill a sense of fiscal responsibility here in Washington, DC. It will not be easy. And particularly it won't be easy if the Republicans continue to play the clown on their side of the aisle and say eliminating taxes for rich people will solve all of the problems confronting the American people. Maybe it will provide them health care; I'm not sure how that works. Maybe it will help educate their kids in public schools; I don't quite get that part. Maybe it will rebuild our infrastructure; hmm, it won't do that, either. But it will make the rich richer, and that's all they are about. END
