Jay Rockefeller: “I support a meaningful tax cut that provides all Americans with financial relief as quickly as possible, but I can not…”

“I support a meaningful tax cut that provides all Americans with financial relief as quickly as possible, but I can not in good conscience support the bill before us today. The decision the Senate is faced with is not whether we should have a tax cut--no one can doubt that Democrats and Republicans alike want a tax cut. Rather, the question is how can we create a tax cut that is fair to the majority of working people and still have enough resources for other critical national priorities? During the Senate's consideration of this bill, I supported a $900 million tax package that provides broad relief to all Americans--across the income spectrum--while ensuring sufficient funds for continued debt reduction and important programs like a Medicare prescription drug benefit. Unfortunately, the tax bill that we are on the brink of passing here today is significantly too large and is heavily skewed toward the most wealthy. If budget surpluses fail to materialize as projected, this bill will threaten our ability to fund urgent national priorities such as education and road construction, and could force us to dip into the Medicare and Social Security Trust Funds in the coming year just as the Baby Boomers begin to retire. Mr. President, this bill is simply too large, given the enormous uncertainty of long-term budget projections.”