On the recordFebruary 15, 2012
I thank Senator Toomey. I appreciate his focusing on the progrowth elements because, as I said at the outset, a budget is an opportunity to set the Nation on a 10-year course, both on the spending side--how much should the government spend--but also on the revenue side. That means we are getting into how to grow the economy because the right tax reform will generate more growth. That growth will generate more revenue in the right way. Unfortunately, if we look at the proposal the President has made, it does nothing to help improve our economic growth. In fact, when the dividend tax was moved down to 15 percent, it was done so because, as Senator Toomey has rightfully pointed out, it is a double tax. In other words, it has already been taxed once at the company level. So when we get a dividend paid, we should not have to pay a high tax on it again. In fact, because of that double taxation, as he has indicated, there will be a tax--total tax of over 60 percent. By the way, in the President's budget, the dividend tax was increased from 15 percent to 39.6 percent for some taxpayers. Then, as Senator Toomey has said, we can add the surcharge that comes from the health care bill and get it up into the forties for the individual. Most people did not expect that. It is an example where this budget actually went further in terms of trying to, again, tax people more and therefore have less growth than anyone expected.…
