Patrick Kennedy: “Mr. Speaker, the reason I am going to be voting against this tax cut is that I do not think it is good public policy for…”

“Mr. Speaker, the reason I am going to be voting against this tax cut is that I do not think it is good public policy for this country. I came in in the 104th Congress and I heard a lot from my Republican colleagues how they wanted to balance the budget, reduce deficit spending, preserve prosperity for the future of this country. Guess what? Two years into the leadership, guess what they do? They go back to the voodoo economics that got us into this deficit dilemma to begin with. Just understand what this rule is saying. It puts in order a tax bill that will basically lock in a tax cut to the tune of $290 billion over 10 years. As the gentleman before me from my side of the aisle, the gentleman from Washington [Mr. McDermott] said repeatedly, four times, the top 20 percent of the income filers get four times the tax benefit as the bottom 60 percent. So it locks this tax cut in. Guess what else it locks in? It locks in spending reductions, we are not hearing about that, Mr. Speaker, spending reductions like a 23- percent cut in the Social Security Administration. Guess what that means? Elderly citizens in my district who are trying to arbitrate to get their Social Security check, who are already waiting 3 months right now, are going to have to wait an additional year. Why are they going to have to wait an additional year to get their measly $435 a month?”