Blog: Today, Congress Voted on a Major Package of Targeted Tax Breaks for Businesses and Families.

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Today, Congress voted on a major package of targeted tax breaks for businesses and families. In Washington-speak, they call it the tax extenders package, and it comes up just about every other year. I have never liked some of the specific tax extenders in the bill and have always been concerned about any bill's cost, but I ultimately voted yes on the bill. It passed by 318-109.

Most of the big tax breaks have been renewed for twenty or so years, so in reality, they're permanent. A good example is the Child Tax Credit, which was first passed in 1997, 18 years ago. The Earned Income Tax Credit, which helps cut taxes for the working poor, was first passed forty years ago. It was sold as temporary then, too. Many of the other provisions are also decades old. When you have the majority of the tax breaks in a bill portrayed as temporary but actually perpetual, it's certainly not transparent government…and more importantly, it makes analysis very difficult.

I would submit that if we're ever going to start fixing our spending problem, the first step is to stop pretending that fiction is reality. The fewer fictions we have to wade through with the budget and taxes, the better our solutions will be, and I am specifically referring to tax reform.

This bill smooths the way to tax reform because tax breaks that are actually permanent, but scored as temporary, make it harder to reform our taxes. Change appears more expensive than it really is. We need a fair tax or a flat tax, and the vote today was a first step to getting there.

Make no mistake, there was much I did not like in this bill, but I voted for it because of the way it moves us to fixing tax policy…and that is something our country can't go without too much longer.

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