M E M O R A N D U M
To: Reporters and Editors
Re: House hearing on tax loophole closers
Da: Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Committee on Finance, made the following comment on today’s House Ways and Means Committee hearing to examine tax loophole closers proposed by the Senate Finance Committee and passed by the full Senate as part of the Senate’s small business tax relief and minimum wage bill.
"I was taken by today’s House hearing to review the Senate’s actions to deal with the tax gap as well as tax shelters. It’s amazing that on the same day the Ways and Means Committee holds a hearing that leaves no lobbyist behind, the Senate Budget Committee chairman offers a budget resolution that presumes raising billions of dollars by going after the tax gap and tax shelters. The House and Senate Democratic leaders not only aren’t singing off the same sheet, but aren’t even in the same choir.
"House members at today’s hearing held big hankies handed to them by crocodile tear-shedding lobbyists. But remember the history. The claims of retroactive taxes completely ignore the bipartisan statements from Senator Baucus and myself that put these companies on fair notice that corporate inversions were done at their own peril. We’ll never get a handle on the tax scams if companies think they get a free pass.
"I’m also surprised by the comments made by Democratic leaders on the Ways and Means Committee about many of these important efforts to go after tax scams, such as SILOs, contained in the minimum wage bill. These same Democratic leaders voted for exactly these same provisions during the conference on the JOBS bill. What’s changed? That might be a good hearing topic for the Senate Finance Committee, but we have too many priorities for working families to consider instead of wasting limited time and resources trying to figure out why voting against tax scams made sense during the JOBS conference but now is such a bad idea. If these House Democrats prevail, K Street will enjoy an ‘easy pass’ to the highway of sweetheart tax breaks."