Bill Pascrell: “Thank you, Mr. Ranking Member, and thank you, Mr. Chairman. I listened to both sides, and you have given me the reasons…”

“Thank you, Mr. Ranking Member, and thank you, Mr. Chairman. I listened to both sides, and you have given me the reasons that I am going to be opposed to this legislation. For the past 4 years, the Ways and Means Committee has debated comprehensive tax reform. Sadly, the fruit of that discussion before us is a 1-year retroactive extension of a temporary tax provision. This is an illusion. This is a Fellini movie we are seeing on a late afternoon in Washington, D.C. It is completely unpaid for. It gives no certainty to businesses or individuals because it expires 1 month from today. Unlike today's bill, Chairman Camp's tax reform draft dealt with many expiring tax provisions in a courageous way. We were dealing with wind credits, R&D tax credits, mortgage debt forgiveness, all the way down the line, as well as the mortgage principal extension, which is needed for people who have had catastrophic problems within their own States. This is an example of what a responsible approach to extenders looks like. This bill before us today is wholly inadequate. Not only does it add billions of dollars to the deficit, we kick the can down the road by only dealing with extenders in a retroactive manner. In other words, this money has been spent over the last 11 months, hopefully, getting to the point where we would pay for it. That is not the way to run the show, and you know that only puts us deeper into uncertainty and certainly deeper into debt.…”