Providing for Consideration of H.R. Salt Marriage Penalty Elimination Act; and Providing for Consideration of H. Res. Denouncing the Harmful, Anti-American Energy Policies of the Biden Administration
Floor Speech
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Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Speaker, this bill is about fairness. I do want to mention, though, the memory is a little short on the other side of the aisle. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act where this was implemented was passed on reconciliation. It only required a simple majority.
Moreover, the Democrats when they passed the Inflation Reduction Act depended on only a simple majority. They could easily have put their recommended SALT cures into that bill. It absolutely fits in with reconciliation which are budgetary items. That is what this is. Nonetheless, they chose not to.
So one has to ask: Why did they choose to spend $1 trillion on expensive green energy projects and not yield tax relief to their own constituents?
I can't answer that, only they can. Nevertheless, let's set the record straight. The Democrats had the opportunity to do whatever they wanted to on SALT. They complained about it for years. They could have fixed it. They choose not to. They deliberately chose not to in a vehicle that only required a simple majority.
So this is about fairness.
Mr. Speaker, when we passed that in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act--one of the greatest stimuli to the American economy ever--we, interestingly, chose not to inflation index that $10,000. Now, thanks to Bidenflation, it should be around $15,000.
So our decision is that even just to make it fair for inflation caused by President Biden and his policies, we could have chosen to just raise it $15,000, but, no, we did, I think, what was the right thing to do, which is to say that there is no penalty to a family, because on this side of the aisle we actually think the idea of family is pretty good for this country. We don't want to disincentivize it.
We decided we would take and just remove what I would call the marriage penalty from this. I think it is the right decision.
One of the gentlemen who supports this mentioned that this goes far beyond blue States. This goes into States where, because of Bidenflation, housing prices have gone up, and, Mr. Speaker, I guarantee you, those property taxes are going to go up for a variety of reasons.
The time to do this is now, it is appropriate, and I fully support the rule.
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