The 111thCongress has now entered into its final post-election stretch before the end of the year, which is often referred to as the “lame duck” session. Before this Congress comes to an end, three important issues need to be addressed: the budget, tax cut extensions and the Medicare physician payment correction. This Congress should not end without addressing this important unfinished business because it will directly affect the health and well-being of our economy.
To date, the existing Democratic Majority has failed to pass a budget. Instead, they plan on extending the existing record spending levels into the next fiscal year because they still don’t want to make the tough decisions required to eliminate our annual budget deficit. On November 2, the American people said that they want to stop deficit spending and the usual way of doing business. The Majority still hasn’t heard this message — as evidenced by the fact they kept their leadership team entirely intact.
If there is no vote on the tax cut extension legislation before the end of the year, taxpayers at every income level will face significant tax increases. Virtually no one will remain unaffected. Without this extension, American families and small businesses will incur a $3.8 trillion tax increase — over $200 billion of which comes next year alone. The increase will hit small businesses and family farms while threatening to take more money away from investment and job creation.
The pending tax increases will impact every American who pays taxes. In addition to eliminating the lowest tax bracket, the tax increases will reinstate the marriage penalty, cut the child tax credit and resurrect the death tax. Further, at a time when businesses say they are having trouble accessing the capital they need to create jobs, letting the tax cuts expire will raise the capital gains tax an additional 5 percent, making a difficult situation worse.
As physicians already know, and many seniors understand as well, patient access under Medicare is currently threatened because of a 23 percent cut to Medicare physician payments scheduled to go into effect December 1 unless this Congress fixes this problem. If this cut goes through, those in the medical profession who serve Medicare patients literally will not be able to afford to stay in business, and seniors’ access to care will greatly suffer. Needless to say, the stakes here are enormous.
Earlier this year, Republicans offered legislation that would have increased physician payments 2 percent for each of the next four years and been offset by medical liability reform and other changes to Medicare. However, this solution was rejected by the Democratic Majority. Over the long term, we need to come up with a solution that addresses the issue without adding billions to our nation’s deficit. I hope both parties can sit down together to solve this problem once and for all.
Since arriving back in Washington on Monday, legislation addressing these important issues has not been placed on the schedule by Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Instead, she has chosen to fill this week’s voting schedule with the following Resolutions: Recognizing Brooklyn Botanic Garden on its 100th anniversary, Honoring the 30th Anniversary of the Bayh-Dole Act and naming more U.S. Postal Offices. Why aren’t we debating the issues that matter?
Those issues aside, there is a lot of talk about enacting a moratorium on earmarks and bringing reform to the process. I support this because when I came to Congress, the process for earmarking funds was broken, and for this reason, I did not submit any of these special funding requests.
I am glad that members of the House Republican Conference moved to my position by approving a moratorium on earmark spending requests. Republicans took the right step in showing the nation that they are ready to reform the system.
Rep. Phil Roe represents Tennessee’s First Congressional District.