Xavier Becerra: “Mr. Speaker, as I said before, there is the kernel of a very good idea in this legislation, and I believe that both…”

“Mr. Speaker, as I said before, there is the kernel of a very good idea in this legislation, and I believe that both sides have tried to extract the good idea from the proposal before us today. The difficulty is, as you ask any farmer, it takes time and it takes money and it takes a lot of sweat to have anything grow. No one in America should believe that we can pass legislation that will cost more than $200 billion and not have it take some sweat and some cost for America. Money does not grow on trees. There is a cost involved. It is a worthwhile idea, because this is a tax cut that everyone can agree to, because it starts from the bottom and everyone would get it, if you corrected the AMT, which, unfortunately, this legislation does not do. So while there is the kernel of a good idea, it is destroyed by the reluctance or the unwillingness to do what is right, and that is to take care of the 33 million Americans by 2010, in 5 rac{1}{2} ext{ years}, who will fall into the Alternative Minimum Tax and will see any savings from this particular tax cut washed out when they have to file their taxes using the Alternative Minimum Tax.”