On the recordDecember 16, 2010
What an honor and privilege it is to be a Member of this House, and what an amazement it is to me to hear this debate that I have heard so much in the past. The road to prosperity is not through tax increases. The road to prosperity in America is not through class warfare. My mother and father came to an America, a United States of America, for a better life, for an opportunity--not a guarantee, an opportunity, for their kids to be successful, for their kids to do well and pay taxes and do well for their kids. When you're voting on a bill tonight that extends current tax rates, the current Tax Code that represents, Mr. Chairman, three-quarters of this bill, that represents three-quarters of the, quote, spending in this bill, and Members of this body say we have to borrow to allow people to keep the money that they earned, where have we come? My father was a steelworker who loved John F. Kennedy, who proposed similar types of tax increases. My mother was a seamstress. Neither graduated from high school. They don't believe in class warfare. Do they support all of this bill? Certainly not. Do I? Certainly not. But the question now, Mr. Chairman, is: Do we allow, on January 1, the largest tax increase in American history? That's the question. I didn't negotiate this bill. If I were king, I would have certainly negotiated it differently. Only in Washington, D.C., can people keep what they have today and not pay more taxes does it cost the government money.
