Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick: “the bill we consider today is a misnomer. It is not as it purports itself to be . . . an ``economic stumulus'' bill.…”

“the bill we consider today is a misnomer. It is not as it purports itself to be . . . an ``economic stumulus'' bill. Rather, it is a corporate windfall tax break bill. The bill will do little to turnaround the economy and to assist those working Americans who, through no fault of their own, have lost their jobs. The bill is almost a clone of the tax cut bill we passed in October. I voted against the first bill, and I intend to vote against this one. Sixty-three percent of the $250 billion in tax breaks contained in this bill go to corporations. Some of the tax loopholes proposed in this bill will allow corporations to shelter interest income from offshore accounts at a cost of $3 billion over three years. The bill cuts the corporate alternative minimum tax by about two-thirds and pays out rebates over a stretched out period of time. The alternative minimum tax was enacted to ensure that America's largest corporations would pay a minimum amount of tax, just as average taxpayers do. The majority on the Ways and Means Committee obviously think otherwise, and it is proposing to virtually eliminate all future minimum corporate tax liability. That means we will return to the days when many corporate entities, who earn millions and billions in profits, will incur a tax liability lower than the average individual wage earner. The bill will also accelerate the reduction of the 27 percent income tax rate to 25 percent.”