James Hill: “Mr. Speaker, today I am here to introduce a simple, but important, motion before us. My motion calls on Congress to…”

“Mr. Speaker, today I am here to introduce a simple, but important, motion before us. My motion calls on Congress to extend expiring middle- and low-income tax cuts set to expire at the end of this year without increasing the deficit. We have seen broad and bipartisan support for extending the middle-class tax cuts. We have also seen bipartisan support for the concept of pay-as-you-go to avoid further increasing the ballooning budget deficits facing our Nation. The motion before us asks the conferees to be sure that Congress achieves both of these goals. We have already seen a bipartisan proposal from the Senate extending for a year middle-class tax cuts without increasing the deficit. And the Blue Dogs have offered a corresponding bill in the House. There are some simple solutions to making these cuts budget neutral, and I would suggest that they are relatively noncontroversial, such as closing various tax shelters that are being abused. Mr. Speaker, we ought to be creating economic stimulus and tax relief while maintaining our long-term economic security. Economists have estimated that the current debt limit will be reached very soon, either this month or in October. This means that the limit on the national debt will have to be raised for the third time in 4 years to more than $8 trillion, effectively forcing our children and our grandchildren to pay our Nation's bills.”