Bobby Scott: “If you are going to spend $166 billion and we would be willing to spend whatever it takes to make the United States…”

“If you are going to spend $166 billion and we would be willing to spend whatever it takes to make the United States safe. We are now debating whether we are safer or not as a result of spending as a result of spending $166 billion. It looks to me that there are a lot of other things you could have done with a $166 billion budget that would have made America a lot safer than we are today. But look at the red ink. I mean, when you start adding it up, there was not a peep mentioned about how we were going to pay it. No sacrifice. And, in fact, when you look at some of the things that the House passed right after 9/11 with most of the votes coming from the Republican side of the aisle, we passed one provision which was a repeal of the alternative minimum tax for corporations. That is kind of technical, but what we found about 15, 20 years ago was that a lot of corporations were paying out dividends year after year after year. They were profitable companies; but because they had so many loopholes and deductions, they were paying no income tax. And so they passed a provision many years ago called the alternative minimum tax for corporations. In the alternative for no tax, at least pay a minimum tax. And that has been a law right after 9/11 when everyone was supposed to be sacrificing. The House passed a provision to eliminate the alternative minimum tax for corporations.”