Rich Neal: “What we are essentially being asked to do today is this, to vote on what economic conditions are going to be like in 10…”

“What we are essentially being asked to do today is this, to vote on what economic conditions are going to be like in 10 years. The gentleman from New York (Mr. Houghton) had it right on target when he suggested that. Let me take my colleagues back 10 years. What we were told that we had to replicate in America 10 years ago were simply Japanese management practices. If every businessman and businesswomen in America simply did what the Japanese did, we would be in great shape, and the prosperity would be just around the corner. Who among us would argue that today? We were told we were going to have deficits for the next 25 years. Who would argue that today? We were told by Paul Kennedy at Yale with his popular book 10 years ago that America's best days were behind; and it was widely read and on the best seller list forever. Who would argue that today? But yet we are being asked to do precisely that by projecting what economic conditions will be like a decade from now. Then we are being told we better do this today so we can stimulate the economy. The Senate is not going to take this up until spring or summer, but we are told it has got to be done today. Minimal debate. Shove it through. Ram it down the minority's throat. Let me tell my colleagues what we are going to do with AMT. We are going to make the matter even worse today. Currently, there are 1.5 million taxpayers who are caught in the AMT net.”