On the recordDecember 15, 2010
Madam Speaker, we will probably be voting on the President's tax proposal this week--a very difficult vote. I really don't know how I'm going to vote. On the one hand, I see the benefit of getting timely temporary and targeted relief to people, which helps the economy with unemployment compensation, unemployment compensation that is most needed for the people of the purple hearts of this Bush recession. On the other hand, I see the money going to the upper 2 percent--the millionaires and billionaires--who will get $700 billion over 10 years, which will put a deficit on our children and grandchildren for years to come--something we can't afford. When it comes time to affording it on reckoning day, it's going to hurt people getting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and that's something I can't see. The estate tax will benefit 6,600 families, to the tune of $25 billion, and I see that as wrong, too; but I understand the need to stimulate the economy and to get middle class tax cuts to the people earning less than $250,000. I ask my constituents to contact me at www.Cohen.house.gov. Let me know what you think. ____________________





