Steve Israel: “I can tell the gentleman who I think is in charge of spending and taxing in this administration and in this Congress; it…”

“I can tell the gentleman who I think is in charge of spending and taxing in this administration and in this Congress; it is Harry Houdini. Because if Harry Houdini was a Member of Congress, he could not have come up with a better ``now you see it, now you don't'' tax gimmick. That is what we are doing today. My Republican colleagues want to pass what they claim is a $96 billion tax cut for married couples today, but then the AMT denies $99 billion in promised marriage penalty relief tomorrow. ``Here today, gone tomorrow.'' We have just heard the gentleman from Illinois state that 36 million families deserve this tax relief today, but the AMT is raising taxes on 41 million taxpayers by the year 2010. In 2001, we promised taxpayers real relief. At that time 1.8 million were paying the AMT. This year, 3 million of them pay the AMT. By the year 2010, 41 million of them will pay the AMT. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle rush to give the deepest tax cuts to people making over $1 million, then sit idly by while taxes are skyrocketing for 70 percent of people making between $75,000 and $100,000: our cops, our firefighters, our nurses, and our teachers. The American people do not have to listen to this debate and take a side. They get it. All they have to do is listen to their accountants.”