Rich Neal: “one of the previous speakers noted the Kennedy tax cuts as a measure of achievement, but what he failed to note was that…”

“one of the previous speakers noted the Kennedy tax cuts as a measure of achievement, but what he failed to note was that part of the revenue, at least one-third of the revenue generated on that occasion, came from closing tax loopholes, which this Congress has been reluctant to address, but let me speak specifically to this issue. The hot movie in 1981 was Smokey and the Bandit, the cool band was Blondie, and the prevailing fiscal theory was trickle down economics. While 1981 is a distant memory for most of us, we should learn from that experience and not repeat the mistakes of the past. The meaningless resolution we are considering today would unfortunately do just that. The budget released this week says that the way to climb out of this deficit is with more tax cuts, exploding tax cuts that we all know are going to be drawn from Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds, just when the baby boomers begin to retire. Mr. Speaker, we cannot afford these tax cuts now, and everybody knows it, so why do we think we can afford them when the baby boom generation begins to retire? Apparently the taxpayers agree with us. The Los Angeles Times poll is clear that the American people dispute the priority that the majority in this House is about to undertake. These tax cuts are not only skewed toward the wealthy, but they disproportionately go to the superwealthy.”