Dave Camp: “first let me say, we are certainly not going to pay for it by raising taxes as our friends in the Senate did by…”

“first let me say, we are certainly not going to pay for it by raising taxes as our friends in the Senate did by including AMT in reconciliation. And let me just say that we have seen since we reduced investment taxes in 2003, we have seen a doubling of capital gains realizations, meaning, a huge increase in the amount of revenue generated by capital gains sales and a huge 45 percent increase in tax receipts as a result. This is part of the revenue that I hear from the other side. And so what happens when investment taxes are reduced is revenues to the government increase. That occurred in 1997 when President Clinton signed a bill that reduced investment taxes, that occurred in 2003 when President Bush signed a bill reducing investment taxes. And so one of the things that you have seen from the investment community is that even though we have seen dramatic, positive revenues to the government as a result of decreasing these taxes, a lot of people in the investment community say that if we do not enact an extension, that would be a very negative signal for Wall Street. Others have said you really will not even see the full potential of realization from the effects of lower rates on investment taxes until they are perceived to be permanent. And that is from the Congressional Budget Office. So the threat of these taxes expiring will affect business decisions well before they do expire and personal investment decisions. So that is why it is important we act now.…”