FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 4, 2009
MEDIA CONTACT: Courtney Sanders
Senator Hutchison Slams Tax Increases in Government-Run Health Care Plan
“It is totally counterintuitive and against everything that has ever worked in the past to increase taxes”
WASHINGTON, DC - Today on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” health care roundtable, U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) said Congressional health care legislative proposals are “counterintuitive” in a time of economic downturn because they discourage investment and hiring, while proposing higher taxes and fines. Below is a transcript of her remarks:
“I think we should step back and say: we are in one of the worst economic downturns in the history of our country. When we have had economic downturns in the recent past, President Kennedy, President Reagan, President Bush lowered taxes and it got the economy going again.
“Today, we are talking about increasing taxes at a phenomenal rate, plus adding new taxes and fines on employers to pay for a healthcare system that is going to drive people into this government plan. So, it is totally counterintuitive and against everything that has ever worked in the past to increase taxes. And we are going to increase capital gains and dividends, which is going to take away jobs. We are going to increase individual rates, which is going to cause people not to hire people because half of the higher income people who are going to pay higher taxes are small business.
“What are we thinking here? We are going against everything that has worked in the past in an economic downtown. We should be encouraging investment, encouraging hiring people, not discouraging it with higher taxes and fines.”
Senator Hutchison joined Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Judd Gregg (R-NH), Jack Reed (D-RI), Kent Conrad (D-ND), and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) as a guest on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” for an hour-long health care Roundtable to discuss health care reform legislation.
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