May 11,2006

Baucus Says Tax Reconciliation Passage Benefits Few, Attention Must Now Turn to Second Tax Bill

Washington, DC -- U.S. Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, issued the following statement this afternoon, upon final Senate passage of the tax reconciliation conference report:

“Despite $70 billion spent on tax cuts in this bill, millions of teachers, families with kids in college, and businesses that want to conduct important research or hire the hard-to-employ will not see one dollar of the benefits handed out today.

“It is true that this conference report made tough choices. Those choices were tough on teachers, tough on families, tough on businesses. Hopefully their relief will be coming soon.

“I will work together with my good friend, the Chairman of the Finance Committee, to deliver a promised second bill – this time with the right priorities. I know Senator Grassley fought hard to defend the Senate position in the tax reconciliation conference. I think the vote in favor of this conference report might have been overwhelming had he been successful in bringing back that Senate bill rather than the bill we have today, which leaves a substantial amount of work undone.

“This bill made the wrong choices – putting 2009 tax cuts before 2006 tax cuts, and putting ideological ‘wants’ before Americans’ real needs.”

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