Burgess Votes No on Pork Tax Bill

Press Release

Right at midnight, Congressman Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (Texas-26), voted against President Obama's compromise tax bill that was introduced earlier this month, and comes with a price tag of $858 billion. The bill has an estate tax provision that will be set at thirty-five percent and is not even set to expire for two more years, extends unemployment benefits for thirteen months, provides ethanol subsidies, and makes $11 billion available in energy tax breaks.

"The deal that was made with the Obama administration is only a two year patch. We've seen that extending these "patches" simply does not work," said Burgess. "We've patched Medicare, we've altered the minimum tax, and yet there has never been any certainty that there will be any long term fixes. If this bill is truly valid it should be able to stand on its own."

While Congressman Burgess does agree with parts of the bill, like extending the existing tax policy, he believes Congress should stop voting on short term fixes, and on legislation that has unreasonable spending.

"Our fundamental problem is that we have a bias towards spending and we keep, taxing, taxing, taxing," said Burgess. "This causes taxes to go up, spending to go up, and the deficit to climb. We've seen for the past few years that the stimulus hasn't helped America dig out of its hole, and adding another $858 billion to the deficit will just leave our children's children in more debt."

The bill, which was passed in the Senate on December 15, came back to the House for final approval. It passed with a roll call vote of 277 to 148 with 36 Republicans voting against the legislation.

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