Bonus Depreciation Modified and Made Permanent

Floor Speech

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Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the ranking member for yielding.

The longer I listen to this discussion and debate, it reminds me of a game that children play: around and around and around we go, around the mulberry bush, because we keep going around and around and around.

I strongly oppose the bill that is before us that would make bonus depreciation permanent. Yes, I support bonus depreciation on a short-term basis to boost the economy if there is a letdown and to provide some incentives to do things that we might not be doing. But I cannot support adding $287 billion to our deficit for a permanent corporate giveaway while tens of thousands of my constituents and tens of millions of Americans experience deep poverty, unemployment, and economic distress.

H.R. 4718 is a corporate giveaway that even the Republican tax reform bill repealed.

There is a tremendous need to incentivize economically distressed communities like many parts of Chicago, other urban as well as rural areas, and those incentives have lapsed. They are threatened. We are not sure that they are going to be coming.

This bill continues the Republican legislative focus on the wrong issues, ignoring the key programs that create jobs, strengthen our citizens, and grow our economy.

Just imagine what unemployment insurance does. It allows the person who does not have a job--the knowledge that something is going to be coming--to go to the grocery store and buy milk or bread.

Or what happens when there is employment opportunities, if roads and bridges are being repaired? A person gets a sense of confidence that there might be work for them to do.

I remember a song several years ago about ``Get a Job''; and the guy said that every day, when he reads the paper, he reads it through and through, trying to find out if there is any work for me to do, but his wife says, ``Get a job.''

Individuals who have become totally upset because, no matter what they seem to do, there is no relief. So how could I vote for this bill when there are still 3.3 million long-term unemployed individuals who have not been aided?

I can't go to church on Sunday or walk down the street without somebody asking me: When is Congress going to do something about our unemployment checks? Are they going to come?

Or they ask: When are the repairs going to be made on our roads and bridges? When are we going to get some new sidewalks? How do you fix the potholes that are erupting all over our community?

When are we going to really take care of the Medicare physician or doctors fix?

When are we going to stop irrational budget cuts that strangle education, research, and innovation?

When are we going to provide confidence and hope?

When are we going to stop the process where the rich continue to get rich and the poor continue to get poor, and the middle class gets squeezed in to where we almost create two groups and two categories of people: those who have much and those who have little?

So I would urge that we vote ``no'' on this bill and give confidence to the American people that their needs will be taken care of.

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