Revising the Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2005 As It Applies in The House of Representatives

REVISING THE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2005 AS IT APPLIES IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES -- (House of Representatives - June 24, 2004)

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the order of the House of June 22, 2004, I call up the resolution (H. Res. 685) revising the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2005 as it applies in the House of Representatives, and ask for its immediate consideration.

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Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, I want to repeat a couple things said in the past. If a small business makes $1 million, what does that mean? That means they are making money and hiring people. Two-thirds of our jobs in America come from small businesses. Two-thirds of all those who file in the top bracket are small businesses. In this new rate structure being proposed, this new tax increase, 75 percent of those people are small business people.

Why would we want to tax the recovery of this economy at this time? What we accomplished in the last tax bill was finally lowering the tax rate on small businesses down to a level large corporations pay.

Remember, Mr. Speaker, that before the July tax cuts, we were charging small business owners higher tax rates than we charged the largest corporations in America, like Exxon or IBM or General Motors. What this bill will do is do that again. It will increase taxes on small businesses and make small businesses pay higher tax rates than the largest corporations in America. Why would we want to reintroduce that injustice back into the Tax Code?

We want to keep low tax rates on small businesses. That is who are creating jobs right now. Two-thirds of our jobs today come from small businesses. This big tax increase on small businesses is not the way to go. We want small businesses making money. This is a tax on their income that they reinvest in their businesses.

More importantly, this proposal adds $130 billion to our deficit over the next 10 years. It is fiscally irresponsible, taxing small business and spending more money. Adding to the deficits is what has given us this hole we are trying to dig out of in the first place.

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Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, my friend and I, we get along very well personally when the mikes are not on; but I just have to say, that is not what this proposal says. This proposal says "reduction in tax cuts for taxpayers with incomes above $1 million," period, end of story. The committee figures out how to do the rest of it.

The point is, if businesses are becoming successful, that means they are going to start hiring people again. We do not want to raise their taxes

Mr. NUSSLE. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I yield to the gentleman from Iowa.