Tax Extenders Act of 2009

Floor Speech

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, this bill supports the efforts of American entrepreneurs and of American businesses to create jobs here at home, and at the same time, it closes down perverse tax loopholes that encourage big corporations to ship American jobs overseas.

On the plus side, it invests and encourages investments in research and development by businesses right here at home, which are provisions that our colleagues have supported in the past. It invests in the very successful Build America Bonds initiative that has driven new investment in roads, in bridges, and in essential infrastructure here at home. It pays for all of these investments by eliminating a number of loopholes in the Tax Code, including a very awful loophole that encourages big corporations to export, not American products, but American jobs.

Very simply, Mr. Speaker, creative corporate tax lawyers have devised a way to have American taxpayers, our constituents, foot the bill for the taxes that their corporations pay to foreign governments for their overseas operations. Think about that. We don't pay for the taxes that American corporations have to pay for jobs here at home and earnings here at home. Yet our constituents are footing the bill for taxes American corporations pay to foreign governments for jobs created overseas. That creates a terrible incentive for big American corporations to move jobs and operations away from the United States. It is a great deal for big corporations, and we understand why they want to protect those loopholes, but it is a lousy deal for American workers and American taxpayers.

The choice we face here is very clear: A vote against this bill is a vote against investing in jobs in America and in favor of protecting loopholes to offshore American jobs.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill and to support America's small businesses and America's jobs.

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