Small Business Jobs Tax Relief Act of 2010

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROSKAM. I thank Mr. Camp for yielding.

Chairman Levin said a minute ago that it's hard to find anything that the minority likes. I'll tell you a few things, Mr. Speaker, that we would like. We would have liked a stimulus that worked. We would have liked a stimulus where unemployment actually peaked at 8 percent as long as our children and grandchildren were being foisted with a $1 trillion obligation. We would have liked it if last month's unemployment numbers weren't goosed up by simply census employees joining the ranks. We would have liked it, Mr. Speaker, if during the health care debate a thoughtful approach had been put forward that wasn't going to cost employers like Caterpillar in my home State $100 million in the first year or John Deere $150 million in the first year. We would have like those things, Mr. Speaker.

I think what the majority is laying out is kind of a happy life of low expectations. That's not a bad way to go through life, but I think that we can do so much more than this. And to Mr. Camp's point, there are some things that are here that are decent and that are marginally okay and slightly better, but is that how dim the lights are in this Chamber that that's our expectation, that something is just sort of okay? I mean, this is an increase in government spending, after all, so I think we can do so much better. Why is it, Mr. Speaker, that we are halfway through the tax year and the research and development tax credit isn't resolved by this majority in this Congress? Why is it that the death tax is a complete ambiguity?

So in answer to the chairman, I have a lot of respect for him and for his work and his sincerity, but I think I want to echo Mr. Camp's observation, that this is so narrowly crafted and so de minimus and being proclaimed by the same folks that promised us great things in the stimulus that I think we can do better.

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