Mitch Landrieu: “Today the Senate passed the Military Tax Fairness Act of 2003, about $1.1 billion in tax relief for our military…”

“Today the Senate passed the Military Tax Fairness Act of 2003, about $1.1 billion in tax relief for our military families. I support this bill. We all support this bill. In fact, we passed this unanimously or near unanimously on a couple of previous occasions. We are visiting this bill again today because the House of Representatives does not like the offset we used to pay for the bill. We paid for it by taxing individuals who renounce their United States citizenship in order to avoid paying U.S. taxes. It is astounding to me that this bill keeps getting bounced back and forth between the Senate and the other body over this issue. We are talking about tax relief for military families and we want Americans who are exploiting tax loopholes to step up and make that relief possible. Most of these people have known great financial success. They were blessed by the economic opportunity that our nation's liberty gives us and the free enterprise system which make those fortunes possible. Those blessings were secured by our military personnel. Every year, the United States Treasury loses about $80 million on individuals who decide that they would prefer to have their cake and eat it too. They want American markets, they want American prestige, they want American stability, but they do not want the obligations that accrue to American citizenship. All the Senate was saying is if you benefited from this nation's security, you should be willing to pay for it.”