Chuck Grassley: “this amendment guts our tax relief bill by $87 billion. It increases taxes, then, on families and working people by $87…”

“this amendment guts our tax relief bill by $87 billion. It increases taxes, then, on families and working people by $87 billion by denying the tax cuts in the bipartisan bill. This amendment not only delays the reduction in marginal rates; it provides only a 1-point reduction in marginal rates. This 1-point reduction equals the tax relief that our bipartisan tax plan provides in the first year alone. Our plan's additional tax cuts would be eliminated entirely by this amendment. The proposal of Senators Daschle and Carnahan would actually make our tax system less progressive by giving greater savings to upper income taxpayers as they pass through the 14-percent bracket. When you are really serious about reducing the tax burden for people in the 15-percent income bracket, you target your available resources to people at that income level. That is exactly what we have done. For those earning between $12,000 and $45,000, we have provided tax relief ranging from 9 percent on one end to 33 percent on the other. This is a conclusion made by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation. To all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who supported the budget resolution, a vote for this amendment destroys our efforts to provide a $1.35 trillion tax cut. I urge you to vote against the amendment.”