Byron Dorgan: “We will have an opportunity to discuss this further. I respect the views of the two Senators who spoke in opposition to…”

“We will have an opportunity to discuss this further. I respect the views of the two Senators who spoke in opposition to this amendment. I would say we are talking in the outyears about $4 billion to $5 billion a year without my limitation. That $4 billion to $5 billion I would like to use to reduce taxes on wages to the extent we can. The tax increases in this country have come from payroll taxes now. Two-thirds of the American workers pay more in payroll taxes than they do in income taxes, and I would have structured the tax bill completely differently than it is now structured. I would have addressed the issue of burgeoning payroll taxes which tries to be a clothes hanger on all of the acts of creating a job to say, 'By the way, we are going to hang all of these social obligations on the act of creating a job.' I am very concerned about that in terms of the disincentive it gives to someone in business to create new jobs. I don't want to go far afield, but there is no social program we discuss in Congress that is as important or effective as a good job to cure what ails this country. So this $1 million limitation makes good sense. I hope Members of the Senate will consider it and hope that we will have a chance to vote on it.”