Don Nickles: “If we do not extend them, it is going to be a tax increase on American families. We are trying to protect American…”

“If we do not extend them, it is going to be a tax increase on American families. We are trying to protect American families. We are basically saying over $13 trillion in spending and about $12 trillion in revenues. The only thing we are trying to protect over the next 5 years is $144 billion. That is basically extending present law to make sure people do not have a tax increase from what their tax rates are today. We do not want the families who are paying taxes today to have a big tax increase, if they have 4 kids, of $2,200 next year. There are some real inequities, almost a bias, for more spending. We do not have pay-go for incremental increases in discretionary spending, but we say, oh, if you want to keep your present tax level, you have to pay for it.”