Chuck Grassley: “The Treasury Department has estimated that White House- Centrist plan's acceleration of the 27 percent rate reduction…”

“The Treasury Department has estimated that White House- Centrist plan's acceleration of the 27 percent rate reduction will yield $17.9 billion of tax relief in 2002 for over 36 million taxpayers, or one-third of all income tax payers. Business owners and entrepreneurs account for 10 million, or 30 percent, of those benefitting from the rate reduction. When you refuse to accelerate the rate cuts you harm farmers and small business persons. This is because most small business owners and farmers operate their businesses as sole proprietorships, partnerships or ``Sub S'' corporations. The income of these types of entities is reported directly on the individual tax returns of the owners. Therefore, a rate reduction for individuals reduces taxes for farms and small businesses. That is why the additional rate reduction under the White House- Centrist plan is so important. In 2002 alone, it injects $17.9 billion of stimulus into our ailing economy and small businesses. So what would a small business do with these tax savings? Well, considering that most of the recent job growth has come from small businesses, I believe they would hire more people and make more business investments. We know that 80 percent of the 11.1 million new jobs created between 1994 and 1998 were from businesses with less than 20 employees. And 80 percent of American businesses have fewer than 20 employees. This is what I refer to as the ``80-80 Rule'' for supporting rate reductions.”