Herb Kohl: “I rise to support this tax cut bill, though not with great enthusiasm and not without great trepidation. It is clear…”

“I rise to support this tax cut bill, though not with great enthusiasm and not without great trepidation. It is clear that a balanced tax cut is justified given the massive budget surplus we are experiencing. Whether this is that tax cut is a different question. We have heard much this week about not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. We have gone beyond that point with this bill. The debate now is whether we will let the good be the enemy of the acceptable. The booming economy of the last few years has resulted in exploding tax revenues and growing budget surpluses. These surpluses present great opportunity and great risk. There is the opportunity to invest in unmet national needs; education, health care, retirement security, agriculture, child care. And there is opportunity to return some tax dollars to the hard working families whose productivity has driven our solid economic performance. As Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has stated, a tax cut gets resources to those who know best how to take care of their families, the taxpayers themselves. But with these opportunities come great risks. We are at risk of putting too much faith in multi-year projections of ever-growing surpluses. We are at risk of locking in revenue losses and deficits with which future Congresses and generations will have to grapple. The $1.35 trillion tax cut comes dangerously close to threatening the trust fund surpluses that protect Social Security and Medicare.”