Palm Beach Post: Rooney right to call and raise: Joins just two others in House delegation to reject ideology

By The Palm Beach Post

Posted: 7:23 p.m. Monday, Nov. 7, 2011

Dysfunction in Washington is so severe that stating the obvious counts as an act of courage. Three members of Florida’s U.S. House delegation stated the obvious last week when they signed a letter agreeing that for the debt-reduction committee to succeed, “all options for mandatory and discretionary spending and revenues must be on the table.”

Sixty Democrats, including Rep. Kathy Castor of Tampa, and 40 Republicans, including Reps. Tom Rooney of Tequesta and Ander Crenshaw of Jacksonville, risked disapproval from their own parties. Democrats generally don’t want the committee to touch Medicare or Social Security. Republicans have balked at anything that could be called a tax increase. But signatories of the letter to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, also known as the “supercommittee,” want it to go beyond its mission to reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion over 10 years, and instead identify about $4 trillion in deficit reduction. There is no way to do that without both entitlement reform and new taxes.

Granted, Republicans usually couch “revenue” in terms of reforming the tax code to lower rates and close loopholes. Still, that could be significant. Last week, a report by Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that because of loopholes and tax breaks 30 top U.S. corporations paid zero federal taxes from 2008 through 2010. One of the 30 was Florida Power & Light Co.’s parent NextEra Energy, based in Juno Beach.

The report torpedoes claims that America’s 35 percent corporate tax rate puts us at a competitive disadvantage. Only about one-fourth of 280 corporations studied actually paid an effective federal tax rate above 30 percent. The report also shows why some corporations don’t really want Congress to adopt a lower tax rate, if that revenue really would be collected.

The supercommittee’s deadline is two weeks from Wednesday – just before Thanksgiving. A vote must take place just before Christmas. Members must act more like those courageous 100 House members and less like Santa Claus.

– Jac Wilder VerSteeg,

for The Palm Beach Post Editorial Board

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