Providing for Consideration of H.R. 7201, Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008 and Providing for Consideration of H.R. 7202, Temporary Tax Relief Act of 2008

Floor Speech

PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 7201, ENERGY IMPROVEMENT AND EXTENSION ACT OF 2008 AND PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 7202, TEMPORARY TAX RELIEF ACT OF 2008 -- (House of Representatives - September 28, 2008)

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Mr. BOYD of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, Mr. Arcuri, my follow Blue Dog from New York.

I'm always intrigued by the arguments made on this floor. But, ladies and gentlemen, I need to tell you the debate here today is about an underlying principle that most Americans understand very well, but a principle that the folks who have been running Washington, DC, for the last 8 years don't have a very good handle on.

And that principle is, is that if you want to buy something, in a business or whether it be in running your local home budget, or whether it be in a local government, or in the Federal Government, if you're going to buy something, you have to be willing to pay for it. We do that in our own home budgets, we do it in our own businesses and our local governments. But in Washington, DC, since 2001, we have said to the American people, You don't have to operate the Federal Government that way. We can spend and buy anything we want, but we really don't have to pay for it. We will go into the capital markets and borrow the money.

There are many of us who have been saying for years that that will work for a while, but when the economic markets, the financial markets, figure out what is going on, then the house of cards will come tumbling town. We have been told for years, up until last Wednesday afternoon a week ago, about 10 days ago, that everything was good, the underlying economy was good even though many of us have been saying there are problems looming.

On Thursday afternoon, the Secretary of the Treasury of this administration and the Federal Reserve Chief appointed by this President, came to Congress, House and Senate, Republican and Democratic leaders, and said, ``Ladies and gentlemen, we have a crisis. The financial markets are about to crash, and we need $700 billion to rescue the financial markets and the economy of this Nation.'' Seven hundred billion dollars. Just 3 days ago we'd been told everything was cool.

The underlying problem is the fiscal and monetary mismanagement of this government by this administration for the last 8 years. And the chickens have come home to roost, as they say back home. That's the underlying discussion we're having here today about whether we would pay for a spending program or tax cut or whether we just go into the capital markets to borrow it.

You can't spend your way out of this. You can't tax-cut your way out of it. You need good, solid economic fiscal and monetary policy, and we haven't been getting it.

Now, this bill does just a couple simple things, and I want to tell you what they are.

It extends the production tax credit, energy production tax credit, investment tax credit, and all other energy-related tax provisions. They're very similar to the Senate bill.

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Mr. BOYD of Florida. And it uses the same offsets as in the Senate energy amendment and mostly has to do with oil production. It takes away some of the favors that we've given away to the oil companies in the tax code and uses them in alternative energy production.

Those who oppose it say we ought not to do that, just leave the existing tax credits for the oil companies and don't find any new pay-fors and just let it go.

The other thing that this bill does is it's a 2-year extension of expiring business and individual tax credits that relate to research and development, and it also has provisions in it which go to the State and local sales tax deductibility for individuals, mental health parity, and a third provision which addresses the education needs of those who have rural schools and who have United States forests in their counties.

This is paid for--now get this--this is paid for by offshore deferred compensation: those people who take their money offshore and put it in an account so they won't have to pay U.S. taxes on it.

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Mr. BOYD of Florida. It would be awful to ask those people to pay for a spending program we may have or another tax cut, wouldn't it? Also, the other part is worldwide interest allocation. Again, moneys that are taken offshore, companies, major public companies that operate in other places and get a tax break because they operate in other places in addition to the United States.

This is the right thing to do. This is a very basic principle that our constituents understand that if we're going to have a spending program, if the United States Government buys something, it's going to have to pay for it, and we ought to start right here today.

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