Small Business And Infrastructure Jobs Tax Act Of 2010

Floor Speech

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Mr. HERGER. Madam Speaker, Republicans have been arguing ever since the debate on last year's failed stimulus bill that we need real tax relief to get our economy going and to create jobs. Today, the Democratic majority has brought forward a bill that offers $3.5 billion in tax relief for small businesses. Unfortunately, it also includes $19 billion in new taxes, including a major tax aimed directly at companies that invest in the U.S. and hire American workers. This comes just days after the Democrats rammed through a health care bill that raises taxes by $569 billion. And if Congress does not extend the tax relief that expires at the end of this year, Americans will see their taxes go up by another $3 trillion. So while there are some good things in this bill, it's hard to see how a collection of minor tax relief measures will spur job creation when small businesses are staring down the barrel of unprecedented tax increases in the year ahead.

When the Ways and Means Committee considered this bill last week, I offered an amendment to make permanent the $250,000 expensing allowance under section 179; however, Democrats voted down this and every other effort to provide real, permanent tax relief for small businesses. What has been added to the bill is a new $2.5 billion bailout for State welfare programs. This has nothing to do with creating jobs; yet it was mysteriously added to the bill after we marked it up in committee. I hope that this was not a deliberate plan to avoid having a vote in committee on the merits of this funding. After the public outrage over backroom dealmaking in the health care bill, it is disappointing to see the majority party again bypassing regular order to make last-minute changes to the bill reported by the committee.

Madam Speaker, the American people still want to know: Where are the jobs? This bill fails to answer that question, and the House should reject it.

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