Dick Cheney on Tax Reform

	Dick Cheney on Tax Reform Vice President of the United States under George W. Bush

Small businesses will be hurt without the tax cuts

CHENEY: They talk about the top bracket and going after only those people in the top bracket. Many of our small businesses pay taxes under the personal income taxes rather than the corporate rate. And about 900,000 small businesses will be hit if you do, in fact, do what they want to do with the top bracket. That’s not smart because seven out of 10 new jobs in America are created by small businesses. You do not want to tax them. It’s a bad idea to increase the burden on those folks.

EDWARDS: Kerry has voted or co-sponsored over 600 times tax cuts for the American people. We are for more tax cuts for the middle class than they’re for, have been for the last four years. But we are not for more tax cuts for multimillionaires. They are. And it is a fundamental difference in what we think needs to be done in this country.

CHENEY: Yesterday, Bush signed an extension of middle-class tax cuts, the 10 percent bracket, the marriage penalty relief and the increase in the child tax credit.

Source: Edwards-Cheney debate: 2004 Vice Presidential , Oct 5, 2004

The Bush tax cuts are working

Opportunity also depends on a vibrant, growing economy. As President Bush and I were sworn into office, our nation was sliding into recession, and American workers were overburdened with federal taxes. President Bush delivered the greatest tax reduction in a generation, and the results are clear to see. Businesses are creating jobs. People are returning to work. Mortgage rates are low, and home ownership in this country is at an all-time high. The Bush tax cuts are working. Source: 2004 Republican Convention Keynote speech , Sep 1, 2004

Not the right time to raise taxes

Some have suggested -- of the other political faith -- that now is the time to raise taxes, I must tell you the President and I think that’s one of the worst ideas we’ve heard in a long time. As we’re coming out of the recession, as we’re getting the engine of the economy driving again, for us to now raise taxes would be exactly the wrong response. We’d put at risk the progress we’ve made, and clearly, it would cost probably hundreds of thousands of jobs out there in the economy. Source: Speech at Rep. Jim Gerlach luncheon, Malvern PA , Oct 3, 2003

We need to make sure that tax relief is permanent

We need to make sure that tax relief is permanent. Businesses and families need to have the confidence that all of the benefits of tax relief that we’ve passed will not disappear in coming years. Because of a quirk in the legislation, tax cuts will go away and taxes will go back up unless we act.

Small business owners are happy to see the death tax disappears in 2010. But you may not be happy to know that the death tax is scheduled to rise from the dead in 2011.

The incentives for small business investment are set to vanish in 2006. The child credit falls back to $700 from $1,000 in 2005. If we do not make tax relief permanent, the taxes on a family of four with $40,000 in income will go up $922 a year in the year 2005.

When we passed tax relief, Americans did not expect to see higher taxes sneak in through the back door. If Congress is really interested in job creation, they will make every one of these tax cuts permanent.

Source: Remarks at the National Minority Enterprise Conference , Sep 30, 2003

They like tax credits; we like tax reform and tax cuts

CHENEY: The things that we’re trying to change focus very much upon giving as much control as we can to individual Americans, be they men or women, be they single or married, as much control as possible over their own lives. [The Gore-Lieberman plan] is Source: Vice-presidential debate , Oct 5, 2000

Co-sponsored bills to maintain charity & mortgage deductions

H.R.1315 (1984):A bill to make permanent the deduction for charitable contributions by nonitemizers.
H.R.3043 (1984):A bill to remove certain impediments to the effective philanthropy of private foundations.
H.CON.RES.37 (1989) & H.CON.RES.342 (1988):A concurrent resolution that the current Federal income tax deduction for interest paid on residential mortgages or on second homes should not be altered.

Source: Thomas Register of Congressional Votes , Jan 1, 1989

No tax increases; deduct R&D and local taxes

H.R.369 (1984):A bill to allow a deduction for State and local public utility taxes.
H.RES.573 (1986):A resolution affirming the intent of the 99th Congress to oppose any increase in individual or corporate tax rates, or the reduction or elimination of deductions and credits.
H.R.1957 (1988):A bill to make permanent the credit for increases in research expenses and for basic research payments.

Source: Thomas Register of Congressional Votes , Jan 1, 1988

Opposed Reagan’s tax overhaul as sellout to Dems

In 1985, Cheney did not play [his usual conciliatory role] when the House considered the tax overhaul legislation that was Reagan’s second-term domestic priority. Cheney helped lead a GOP revolt that blocked initial floor consideration of the bill. He backed the move, in part, out of frustration at Republican’s exclusion from the legislative process, in which the Reagan administraiton dealt principally with Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski.

The administration “basically sold out to Rostenkowski,” Cheney said. “They cut out Republicans in the House and tried to jam it through and it didn’t work.”

Other Republicans came around after Reagan made a personal plea to keep the tax-revision issue alive, but Cheney was unmoved. “They’re leaning on us to support bad legislation,” he said.

Source: Poltics in America, Alan Ehrenhalt, ed., 1987, p. 1682 , Jan 1, 1987

Keep mortgage bonds; loosen capital gains rules

H.R.1176 (1984):A bill to continue to allow Mortgage Revenue Bonds to be issued.
H.R.2225 (1984):A bill to reduce the holding period required for long-term capital gain or loss treatment.
H.R.5318 (1986):A bill to repeal the windfall profit tax.

Source: Thomas Register of Congressional Votes , Jan 1, 1984

Voted for oil tax break; for indexing income tax

Voted YES to amend the Constitution to require balanced budget (1982)
Voted YES to Reagan budget proposal (1981)
Voted YES to index income taxes (1981)
Voted YES to weaken Carter oil profits tax (1979)

Source: Congressional Record, in Poltics in America, Alan Ehrenhalt , Jan 1, 1982

Voted YES on $350 billion in tax breaks over 11 years.

H.R. 2 Conference Report; Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003. Vote to adopt the conference report on the bill that would make available $350 billion in tax breaks over 11 years. It would provide $20 billion in state aid that consists of $10 billion for Medicaid and $10 billion to be used at states' judgment. The agreement contains a new top tax rate of 15 percent on capital gains and dividends through 2007 (5 percent for lower-income taxpayers in 2007 and no tax in 2008). Income tax cuts enacted in 2001 and planned to take effect in 2006 would be accelerated. The child tax credit would be raised to $1,000 through 2004. The standard deduction for married couples would be double that for a single filer through 2004. Tax breaks for businesses would include expanding the deduction that small businesses could take on investments to $100,000 through 2005. Reference: Bill HR.2 ; vote number 2003-196 on May 23, 2003

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