Bob Schaffer: “the tax burden on Americans is really unchanged through this tax credit proposal. I know the gentleman and I as…”

“the tax burden on Americans is really unchanged through this tax credit proposal. I know the gentleman and I as conservatives tend to be of the opinion that we ought to lower the tax burden, and we certainly should. This is really a different argument, though, about what happens after the effective tax rate is established. The question is, do taxpayers wish to continue just sending bags of cash back to Washington so that all of the politicians that we work with here have the opportunity, and just hope, these taxpayers may just hope that we will spend it in a way they want. That is kind of a gamble to take and a little bit of a risk. There are 435 of us and we do not agree on every topic every day, let alone how to spend money on education. So that is the one option, is to continue paying high amounts of taxes as Americans do today and shovel those dollars here to Washington. Or, the tax burden would be the same, but what we are suggesting through this proposed legislation is to allow taxpayers to take a certain portion of their Federal tax liability, their Federal tax bill, and self-direct that anywhere in the education industry they want.”