Earl Pomeroy: “What can we not do? What priorities have been crowded out if we pass the revenue plans secured to the wealthiest in this…”

“What can we not do? What priorities have been crowded out if we pass the revenue plans secured to the wealthiest in this country of the majority? Well, let us start with one that was considered last week in the Committee on Ways and Means and was deemed to be too expensive by the chairman of the committee, the very chairman that has supported virtually every one of these tax cuts, including the unlimited estate tax relief that we have been talking about. The proposal that he believes we cannot afford is one that would help middle income families save for retirement. Mr. Speaker, we have one-third of the people in this country with no retirement savings whatsoever. And of the IRA-eligible, where the $50,000 and below household can contribute to that and deduct that contribution, only 4 percent of all eligible households are using that IRA. We need to go back to the drawing board and recognize that we have to have a more meaningful tax incentive to help people with their savings challenge. There is no better savings incentive than a match on a contribution. As Federal employees, one puts money in the Thrift Savings Plan, and then the employer, the Federal Government matches that contribution. We could pass a tax cut that matched by a tax credit to the tune of 50 percent that contribution to savings. That proposal was considered. It was voted down, virtually on party lines.”