John Cornyn: “my amendment reduces the 10-percent marginal income tax bracket to 5 percent--10 percent to 5 percent--in 2009 and 2010.…”

“my amendment reduces the 10-percent marginal income tax bracket to 5 percent--10 percent to 5 percent--in 2009 and 2010. Currently, the 10-percent tax bracket that was created in 2001 by the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act applies to the first roughly $8,000 that a single taxpayer earns and $16,000 for a joint tax return. My amendment provides broad-based relief to more than 105 million taxpayers, including every hard-working American with an income tax liability. My amendment does not add to the bill's total. Instead, my amendment is paid for by striking the refundable making work pay credit which picks winners and losers by providing relief to only a select group of taxpayers. It also, I might say, repeats a mistake we made last year, or earlier--I guess last year, last January--when we spent $150 billion of our children's and grandchildren's money to try to stimulate the economy, and everybody agrees it did not work.”