Carper Says $70 Billion Tax Cut Misses the Mark

WASHINGTON (May 11, 2006) – Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., issued the following statement after voting against a $70 billion tax bill, which passed the Senate Thursday: “Twice in the past year I’ve voted for Senate legislation to extend the research and development tax cut for businesses and a popular tuition deduction to help pay for college, while providing much-needed relief from the alternative-minimum tax for middle-income families. But the bill that’s before us today eliminates the R and D credit, the tuition deduction and would provide only a year’s relief from the AMT in order to make room for tax cuts on capital gains and dividends that disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Americans. I believe that the engine of our economy is the middle-class, but under this bill, the average middle-income family would only receive about $65 in tax cuts, while wealthy Americans would receive more than $7,000. That’s not fair and it’s not sound economic policy. Moreover, the authors of the legislation used a variety of cynical gimmicks in order to pay for these tax cuts, the cost of which will explode in the future and further worsen our already-burgeoning budget deficit. Unfortunately, many in the Congress think deficits don’t matter. They think it’s okay to pass a tax cut now and pay for it later. They’re wrong. We can’t continue down a fiscal course that emphasizes short-term gain, but really inflicts long-term pain. We can’t keep paying for tax cuts with more and more debt that our children and grandchildren will have to pay off.”