Washington, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-Lillington) a member of the House Budget Committee, voted today for a federal budget resolution that provides a balanced budget in the next five years, middle-class tax relief, and investments in education, first responders and veterans health care.
The budget resolution passed the House and now must be reconciled with a similar measure previously passed by the Senate.
“This resolution will produce a balanced budget with balanced priorities. Rather than continue to pass a crushing debt burden on to future generations, the budget contains tough discipline for a new direction for federal spending,” said Etheridge.
“The budget provides greater investment in our nation’s schools and provides $50 billion for children’s health insurance. And it protects millions of middle income families from the onslaught of the Alternative Minimum Tax.”
The budget also includes a provision that would pave the way for Congress to approve legislation for tax credits for school construction bonds, which Etheridge has worked to enact since his first term in Congress. Etheridge plans to introduce legislation to create such bonds in April.
The budget adheres to the “pay as you go” rule adopted by the House in the first 100 hours of the new Congress. It requires that any entitlement spending increases or tax cuts be offset, so that the bottom line of the budget, which is currently in deficit, is not worsened.
The budget plan provides for middle-income tax relief, such as extension of the child tax credit, marriage-penalty relief, extension of the 10 percent individual income-tax bracket, elimination of most estate taxes, extension of the research and experimentation tax credit and extension of the deduction for state and local sales taxes. The budget also includes a one-year fix for the Alternative Minimum Tax, which without the fix would affect 43-million middle-class families.
The budget does not raise taxes. Instead it seeks to enhance revenues for important priorities by going after the “tax gap” – the difference between taxes owed and taxes collected – and by cracking down on waste, fraud, and abuse in government programs.