Tax and Appropriations

» Please view "The Weekly Whip" for the week of June 14, 2004

» All referenced documents are bundled in a PDF here

WASHINGTON, DC – House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (MD) released the following statement tonight after a united Democratic Caucus, and 72 Republicans, defeated the Majority’s sham budget enforcement bill on a vote of 146-268.

  H.R. 4613 - Department of Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2005

Angered over last week’s vote on corporate-tax measure, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) penned a stern letter Monday to his Caucus, chastising Democrats for voting against the party on a procedural vote — and blasting Republican business lobbyists for allegedly misrepresenting Democrats’ positions on the controversial bill.

» Whip Hoyer Statement on the Need for "Pay-You-As-Go", June 17, 2004

» Flawed Budget Process Legislation Expected on Floor, prepared by the House Budget Committee Democrats, June 17, 2004

» Whip Hoyer Statement on the Consideration of the FSC/ETI Bill, June 17, 2004

» Summary of the Republican FSC/ETI Bill June 17, 2004

WASHINGTON DC – House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (MD), House Budget Committee Ranking Democrat John Spratt (SC), and Blue Dog Coalition co-chairman and House Agriculture Committee Ranking Democrat Charlie Stenholm (TX) held a press conference today to denounce the sham Republican “pay-as-you-go” or budget “enforcement” bill scheduled for the House floor tomorrow, and also discuss the Democratic alternative.

If Republicans really want to honor the memory of Ronald Reagan, they should toss in the trash the corporate tax legislation making its way through Congress.

One of Reagan's greatest achievements was passage, with bipartisan support, of the 1986 Tax Reform Act. The goal of the landmark bill was to make the tax code simpler and fairer while boosting economic efficiency. Loopholes were closed, tax rates were reduced, and all sorts of distinctions were eliminated so that individuals and companies with the same income or profits were required to pay roughly the same tax.

The Republican majority has been successful in winning the votes in order to get legislation passed.  I don’t think that they have been successful in getting the American people to believe that they have been fair to the minority or fair to the working people or fair to the manufactures that create jobs here.  I don’t think that they have been fair when it comes to having some sense of patriotism or some sense of pride in saying ‘Made in the USA.’