Ed Markey: “today we are brought to the floor of this House as America's young men and women are at war in Iraq. The American people…”

“today we are brought to the floor of this House as America's young men and women are at war in Iraq. The American people expect their elected representatives to address how much this war will cost and how much securing our hometowns will cost in our continuing war against terrorism as well. Instead, the Bush administration is asking this Congress to treat as its highest budget priority the lifting of that very onerous burden felt by the wealthiest of Americans--the double taxation of dividends. We all know what a huge burden double taxation of dividends imposes on the wealthiest Americans. Apparently Republican Party leaders in Washington feel that failing to lift this burden from the shoulders of the rich would be too great a sacrifice, even in wartime. For them, lifting the burden of double taxation of dividends is: More important than paying for a war in Iraq and the subsequent rebuilding of Iraq. More important than paying for security at our ports, airports, and nuclear power plants; and More important than providing affordable health care and medicine to our grandparents. Last night, President Bush officially created a whole new group of 250,000 war veterans--yet he does not even have enough money in his budget to take care of this country's obligations to veterans of the first Persian Gulf War, the Vietnam War, the Korean War, or World War II. Never before has a President cut taxes in the face of war.”