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Mr. DOLD. I certainly thank the chairman for his leadership on this.
Mr. Speaker, I'm confused. I think my colleagues on the other side of the aisle haven't read what H.R. 8 is. They keep talking about how my colleagues and I are looking to try to raise taxes on a segment of the population. Actually, what this does is extend current tax rates for everyone--for every single American. I can tell you that, for people all across the country right now, foreclosures are up. They're concerned about how they will send their kids to school. We've got energy prices that are on the rise. We want to make sure that the government is not taking more from them.
I have to tell you that I think what we're talking about right now is trying to empower the American people. We want to make sure that we have upward mobility. We want to try to create growth in our economy.
Mr. Speaker, in 2010, the President of the United States came before the American public and said that our economy was too fragile. The President said that our economy is fragile and that we should extend these tax rates. That's when the economy was growing at 3 1/2 percent, Mr. Speaker. The Commerce Department just came out with statistics that we are growing at 1 1/2 percent today. There is no way in the world that we should be taking more out of the pockets of the American public. It's just not feasible.
Two-thirds of all net new jobs are created by small businesses, but this isn't just for small businesses--this is for every single American. We're running the experiment today. If you want to talk about higher taxes--more taking in the State of Illinois--if you want to take a look at what's going on in the State of Illinois, we are dead last in too many categories. We are not creating jobs. Jobs are picking up and they're going to neighboring States. They're leaving because we've decided to take more from hardworking taxpayers in the State of Illinois.
What we want to do is to make sure that we extend these for an additional year so that we can have real tax reform. That's what this is about. We want to talk about pro-growth tax policies so that we can get the American public back to work. This is about jobs and the economy.
Frankly, I tip my hat to my colleagues because, when I talk to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, they also indicate to me that the number one issue is jobs and the economy.
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Mr. DOLD. Let's come together. Let's not talk about how we want to raise taxes on the middle class because, frankly, that's just inaccurate, not true. We are looking to try to make sure these get extended for an additional year so that we can talk about pro-growth tax reform and get people off of the unemployment lines and back to work.
So I applaud you for trying to get up there and plead your political point, but we need to come together. We need to make this happen for the American public.
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