Rep. Ron Kind Statement on the Fiscally Irresponsible Extension of the R&D Tax Credit

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) released the following statement after today’s vote to permanently extend the research and development (R&D) tax credit, costing nearly $156 billion over 10 years:

“I strongly support investments in research and development. I have a long record of supporting American innovation to create high-skilled jobs and bolster productivity. But the policy behind research and development is not the problem with this legislation.

“The problem lies with creating permanent tax policies without offsetting the cost. Adding almost $156 billion to the national deficit is not good for our long-term economic growth and not fair to the taxpayers who foot the bill.

“We shouldn’t enact permanent policy—even good policy— without committing to budgetary offsets to pay for the policy. And we can easily find those offsets by further reining in health care costs, cutting unnecessary defense projects the Pentagon doesn’t even want, or eliminating the wasteful subsidies in our farm policy.

“The House majority pretends to care about fiscal responsibility, but they aren’t willing to do the hard work of actually making tough budget decisions. The Republican budget that they passed just a few weeks ago called for offsets to any permanent extensions to the tax code, yet they are already violating that pledge. We had a system in place in the 1990s to pay for new spending, but under Republican control those rules were thrown out the window. Now they are reverting back to old habits, and our children will be paying the bill.”

Last night, Rep. Kind debated this bill on the floor of the House of Representatives, speaking about the need for fiscal responsibility. The video of his speech can be found here.