Bonus Depreciation Modified and Made Permanent
Floor Speech
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Mr. TIBERI. Thank you, Chairman Camp, for your leadership on this important issue and your leadership on the tax-writing committee. If we would have had similar leadership in the Senate and at the White House, we would have a different discussion today, and that would be one on comprehensive tax reform.
Unfortunately, we are not having that discussion because there hasn't been leadership. In fact, there has been zero leadership from this White House. And after 5 1/2 years of this President being in the White House, he still doesn't want to take responsibility for this economy. Taxes are higher. We have more regulations. We have an economy that is sputtering along. In fact, the facts are that the first quarter of this year, our economy retracted.
This bill is a jobs bill. It is that simple. It is a jobs bill. We have had bonus depreciation since 2002. This isn't new. It has been in the Tax Code under temporary law since 2002, and extended many times--many times, retroactively. It expired, ladies and gentlemen, in December.
I was talking to a CFO of a large American manufacturer this week, and he said to me, You understand that when you retroactively do this, it doesn't help our economy.
When you only do it, in essence, for 1 year, which is the narrative that my friends on the other side of the aisle are acquiescing to, in that this is a fruitless waste of time because we should just accept the Senate bill that passed out of the Senate Finance Committee at the end of the year, which will retroactively extend bonus depreciation back to January of this year for another year--next year, 2015--that doesn't do a whole lot to grow our economy.
It is better than a sharp stick in the eye, 1 year; yet, if you talk to a CFO, like I did this week and as I have over and over and over again, a business plan is for several years.
When a business owner who is a manufacturer buys a piece of machinery to make a widget, it costs a lot of money. This expense is 50 percent of that, Mr. Speaker.
Guess what? You can make more widgets, and you can hire a new employee. The new employee makes money, pays taxes to the city of Columbus, pays taxes to the State of Ohio, pays taxes to the Federal Government--more tax revenue, a job, more jobs.
That is why hundreds of businesses and organizations are for this piece of legislation, which has been around--unpaid for--for 10 years.
I mean, think of the logic here, ladies and gentlemen. If we extend spending, we tell the American people that it doesn't cost them any more money. If we extend a current tax cut--so stopping a tax hike--it costs them more money. That is Washington, D.C., math. It makes no sense. That is the inconsistency.
The bottom line, Mr. Speaker, is this is about jobs; this is about our economy. This is bipartisan. It doesn't need to be partisan. I have said before that I don't want to give up my voting card to the U.S. Senate. Let the House speak.
Let's have a good, old-fashioned conference committee. I don't expect I will get my way. I know Chairman Camp doesn't expect he will get his way. We will have a good, old-fashioned compromise. I know that is a dirty word sometimes around here.
As my sixth grade daughter says: Isn't it supposed to work where the House passes a bill, and the Senate passes a bill, then you kind of work out the differences, and it goes to the President?
Yes, Angelina, that is the way it is supposed to work.
I wish the folks on the other side of the aisle would allow us to change this narrative of the Senate won't accept this, so let's just take the Senate bill.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. TIBERI. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume, and then I will yield to Mr. Roskam.
To the American people it must be really confusing. So we have had bonus depreciation, this tax policy, temporary for over 10 years, unpaid for; supported by many on the other side of the aisle, unpaid for; temporary, many times retroactive. And yet, moving that policy forward for 10 more years, the same way it has been paid for over 10 years, costs money, bad policy, even though we are giving for the first time certainty, predictability to people who actually create jobs in America, who must have a business plan and must make those big purchases. Amazing.
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Mr. TIBERI. I yield myself such time as I may consume for my closing.
Mr. Speaker, the choice is very clear. As the gentleman from Massachusetts--who is a friend of mine and who I agree with on a lot--said we should be here to talk about comprehensive tax reform and not temporary tax policy.
In my years here in this United States Congress and my years, more importantly, on the Ways and Means Committee, there hasn't been a chairman that has been more bipartisan, more inclusive, and made a stronger effort to comprehensively reform our Tax Code than Chairman Dave Camp. If he would have had a partner in the White House and a partner in the Senate to move the ball along as far as he did, quite frankly, in a very bipartisan way, we wouldn't be here today.
But here are the facts: for the past 5 1/2 years, Barack Obama has been the President of the United States of America. Here is a fact: the first quarter of this year, our economy retracted 2.9 percent.
This bill is a jobs bill. Simple enough. And, in fact, during my time on the Ways and Means Committee--putting Chairman Camp aside--without Chairman Camp, with other chairmen, we haven't had any bipartisanship. We haven't had tax bills. We didn't have an effort to comprehensively, in a bipartisan way, have a Tax Code rewritten. It has only been Chairman Camp.
So we can talk about theory and academics. But here we are today, with one choice in an economy that is not near where any of us want it to be after 5 1/2 years of Barack Obama as President.
We have a piece of legislation that we know creates jobs that for 10 out of the last 12 years hasn't been paid for. For 10 out of the last 12 years, it hasn't been paid for. And there is no benefit to job creators for long-term certainty. None. Zero.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have already submitted for the Record a list of hundreds of associations that represent thousands and thousands of employers around the country who create jobs for hundreds of thousands of employees who say this is one of the best job-creating tools they have.
I know people who want a job. They would rather have a job than unemployment insurance. They want a job really badly.
Something my dad said to me a long time ago when he lost his manufacturing job of 25 years: ``The most important thing is a job.'' And that is how simple this is, ladies and gentlemen. That is how simple this is.
In 5 1/2 years, we have higher taxes, more regulations. This is about jobs. This is what job creators want. Let's give them what they want. Let's go to the Senate. Let's have a conference committee. Let's work it out the good old-fashioned way.
I know the gentleman from Massachusetts and I, if we got locked in a room, we could work it out the good old-fashioned way. Let's do it.
I urge my colleagues, let's not make this partisan. Let's make this bipartisan, as it should be, as it has been, and go work with the Senate to get this done and help Americans get a job.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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