Cleo Fields: “Without question. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. One of the points that I wanted to make was the point of the…”

“Without question. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. One of the points that I wanted to make was the point of the alternative minimum tax proposal that was eliminated in this piece of legislation. I mean, the whole purpose of this measure that was passed in 1986 was because of the fact that we had about 130 to 250 corporations that pay zero in taxes. This was a big loophole in our tax law, so we passed this legislation so we could make sure that corporations paid their fair share. Now, if the gentlewoman would continue to yield, even corporations, the very corporations that we are giving this big tax break to today as a result of the passage of this act a few minutes ago, if these corporations' board of directors would meet across the country, and if they are in the red, these board of directors members will not give their shareholders a tax dividend because they are in the red. This company, this country is in the red. It is in the red because we are facing a huge deficit. We are Members of Congress, we really are a board of directors for the United States of America. So I think it is our fiduciary responsibility as members of the board of directors for the United States of America to make sure that we not give a tax dividend to our shareholders when our corporation, which is the United States of America, is not as solvent as we want it to be.”