Charles W. Stenholm: “I rise in support of this simple motion calling for some truth in advertising and fiscal honesty in the tax bill. While…”

“I rise in support of this simple motion calling for some truth in advertising and fiscal honesty in the tax bill. While we can have honest differences of opinion about the size and structure of the tax cut, we should all be able to shoot straight with the American people about the cost. Unfortunately, it appears that this tax bill will use every budget gimmick in the book, and possibly invent a few more, in order to hide its true cost. This motion very reasonably asserts that the cost of all tax cuts should be shown honestly and be phased in within 5 years so the costs do not increase dramatically and surreptitiously in later years. The tax bill passed by the other body would delay full implementation of the five most expensive components until 2009 and 2011. More than 70 percent of these costs occur in the second 5 years. Even worse, the cost of this bill would explode to $4.1 trillion in the next decade, at the very time that the Social Security and Medicare programs will begin to face severe financial challenges with the retirement of the baby boom generation. This tax bill bets the ranch on surplus projections continuing to grow. If those projections are off just a bit, we will be forced to dip into Medicare trust funds before we even start dealing with the increases for defense or other needs as yet not addressed.”