GOP Should Show Leadership on Tax Reform

Statement

GOP Should Show Leadership on Tax Reform

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) issued the following response to recent partisan attacks on his Tax Reduction and Reform Act of 2007. Chairman Rangel's legislation would reform the individual and corporate tax codes to provide tax relief to more than 90 million families while helping American companies remain competitive internationally.

"Congressional Republicans are quick to blame someone else for their inability to make the Bush tax cuts permanent. Their sharp rhetoric ignores the fact that these very tax cuts put millions of American families in the crosshairs of a tax increase in the form of the dreaded alternative minimum tax (AMT). I have proposed a tax reform plan to eliminate this burden once and for all because it is the fair and equitable thing to do. We can deal with 2010 when we get to 2010, but we need to fix the AMT now. The response from Republicans to my bill has been telling. Rather than pledge cooperation to begin overdue discussions on tax reform, they have fired up what one columnist called the "big lie machine," spewing political rhetoric when they should be showing leadership. I would like to note that Representative Paul Ryan has shown the leadership of putting out a tax reform proposal, a plan that does not extend the 2001 Bush tax cuts."

GOP Members of Congress recently released a report from the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) illustrating what will happen when the Bush tax cuts expire in 2011. This analysis purely reiterates information they were provided in 2001 and 2003 during consideration of the Bush tax cuts.

"There is nothing new here. In fact, Republicans knew they were pushing taxpayers off a cliff in 2010 when they passed the Bush tax cuts and failed to make them permanent. Somehow, their memory gets as fuzzy as their math when you remind them that they set the expiration of these cuts. They had six years in the majority after passing the 2001 tax policies and failed to muster the political courage to extend them beyond 2010. It is easy to blame others for your own failure, but I would encourage them to focus their energy on working with the Congressional leadership to give tax relief to working families."

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