Help Me Give America a Tax Holiday
by Rep. Louie Gohmert
12/05/2008 Print This


Bailing out a leaky boat may be the only way to prevent it from sinking, but bailing out sinking banks with taxpayer dollars is no way to keep our economy from sinking.

I was one of the House conservatives who opposed the massive bank bailout last October because I didn’t believe that government was smarter than the stock market. And now that about $350 billion in taxpayers’ money has been spent without much success, I think it should stop right now. That’s why when Congress reconvenes -- presumably Monday -- I’ll introduce legislation to give all Americans a two-month income tax holiday.

Just think about how massive this bureaucratic nightmare has become. An estimated $7.7 trillion is being committed to bailouts by U.S. Treasury Secretary Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. Compare that to the $1.2 trillion that will be paid in individual income tax for the 2008 tax year. In a matter of months, these men have committed 6.5 times what people will pay in income tax for the entire year. Continued



Imagine if instead of those billions being squandered through failed bailouts, Americans could keep their own hard earned tax money to use as they need. It’s too late to stop government from spending the first $350 billion, but it’s not too late to take the other half of the original $700 billion and give it to the American taxpayer to do with it what he or she chooses.

Instead of allowing Americans to use their own money to decide which companies deserve to be stimulated or bailed out, our government granted that power to one man who is giddily giving away (they call it “investingâ€