Posted 2:13 am Friday, March 21, 2008
Hutchison Praises Tax Cuts
By GREG JUNEK
Business Editor
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison on Thursday told Tyler business leaders she believes that making President Bush's tax cuts permanent would help show that the country will have long-term economic stability.
Business Editor
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison on Thursday told Tyler business leaders she believes that making President Bush's tax cuts permanent would help show that the country will have long-term economic stability.
But Hutchison, R-Texas, added that a spending bill out of the Senate - passed without her or fellow Republican Sen. John Cornyn's vote - would increase spending, increase the deficit and increase taxes.
"I think that is exactly the wrong thing to do," she said during her address to 28 business representatives at the Tyler Area Chamber of Commerce. "Right now we just passed a bill that will give every taxpayer a rebate, and then we turn around and pass a budget that would require tax increases."
The proposed budget is going to conference committee, and Sen. Hutchison said there is still a chance for a filibuster if the bill comes out of conference committee with the tax increases intact.
"It would average about a $2,300-per-family increase in taxes if this budget goes through and if we don't extend the tax cuts." she said, adding the bill would do away with the 10 percent bracket and require people to pay at a 15 percent rate.
"This is your very lowest income people; 8 million of your lowest income people would be paying higher taxes," she said.
Sen. Hutchison said she and many senators did not believe the $150 billion economic stimulus package was the best plan to boost the economy, but it was bipartisan and the administration had negotiated it with the House of Representatives.
"We hope that when the checks start coming in the mail, which should be in May, where every taxpayer is going to get $600 and with the tax credits for business investment, that that will help spur the economy through the next few months and keep us from going into a worse situation," she said.
The Senate is trying very hard to not do too much regarding problems caused by subprime lending, Sen. Hutchison said.
"It should be the physician's rule, 'First, do no harm,' we believe, because we've seen Congress overcompensate before," she said, referring to the savings and loan crisis in the 1980s-1990s. "We want to be able to believe that this is a little dip and not a recession."
Texas is much better shape than many other parts of the country, chiefly because lenders were responsible, Sen. Hutchison said.
On immigration, the senator said she believes the country needs a guest worker program, but she is disappointed that the president and Congress could not establish one.
The issue will probably not come up again immediately in Washington.
"I would have to say probably it's not going to be easy to get this year because the illegal immigration bill that went down to defeat last summer caused people to be very concerned about whether we could do a comprehensive bill," she said. "There are a number of people who do not want to do a few parts at a time."
Sen. Hutchison said she used to believe in a comprehensive bill because so many checks and balances exist in the immigration issue, but she now believes it would be impossible to pass a comprehensive bill. Instead, different immigration issues will probably have to be addressed in separate bills.
"I think we should start with border security and a guest worker program that people will see can work," she said.
Border security is a must, the senator said, adding that drug cartels in El Paso and Laredo are becoming more violent. And at the same time a guest worker program is needed that will allow people to come here and "live above-board and not underground."
