With the tax cut plan before us, we're proposing to finally start sending hard-earned dollars out of Washington and back to the taxpayer. Most of the provisions in this mark are what the people have been telling us they really want. These include addressing the marriage penalty, providing health care tax relief, more help for education, pension and savings help, long-term care, child care, estate tax relief and general relief for middle income taxpayers. Nearly all of the provisions that I introduced as S.1160 are included in some form in this mark.
I commend the Chairman for taking the initiative and pushing for major tax cuts that people really want and both Republicans and Democrats support.
The President has only offered modest tax cuts. And, of course he wants to raise other taxes to pay for much of it. The President wants it both ways. He wants to be able to take credit for a tax cut on the one hand, while he's raising taxes on the other. If we let him continue like this, then we deserve whatever we get. The gravy train is moving through Washington, and we need to make sure that taxpayers get more than table scraps.
There are a number of issues in this mark that I'd like to touch upon. I'm happy to see that retirement security is featured so prominently in the Chairman's mark. Increasing pension coverage and providing incentives for workers to save for their retirement will put America on the right path toward addressing the difficulties posed by the pending retirement of the baby boom generation. While I commend the chairman for his dedication to pension reform, I would like to see the top heavy rules modified in order to increase pension coverage among small employers. Furthermore, I've filed an amendment to accelerate the vesting schedules for employer matching contributions. This would help people who move in and out of the work force, especially women, to achieve a secure retirement.
I would also very much like to see my FARRM Account legislation included in the mark. This new savings vehicle would be a new risk management tool for farmers that's badly needed as part of a comprehensive package to help the farming sector in what has become a very real farm crisis across the country. I've filed an amendment regarding FARRM accounts and I plan on offering it tomorrow.
On the other hand, I'm very happy that a five year extension of the section 45 credit regarding wind energy, which I authored back in 1992, is included in the mark. However, I feel very strongly that the biomass portion of section 45 needs to be expanded. No one has been able to make use of the very limited closed-loop biomass provision and it needs to be expanded as I have tried to do in a bill, S.1351, that I introduced, and an amendment I've filed for tomorrow . Doing so will not only bring about economic benefits, but will be a tremendous boost to the environment.
There are a few other areas I will want to improve also, but I want to commend Chairman Roth for the overall job he and his staff have done to begin the process in the Senate of delivering necessary tax relief to the American people.