Press Statement: Compromise? Good Things in the Extenders Package Come at Far Too High a Price

Following is a statement by Bob McIntyre, director of Citizens for Tax Justice, regarding the announcement of $680 billion tax cut package (split between the extenders and omnibus bills) to be considered by Congress in the next few days.

"At a time when we already face a $7 trillion budget hole over the next decade, increasing that hole by $680 billion to pay for a new package of tax breaks is an absolute disgrace. This tax-cut package would lose more revenue than was "raised" by the fiscal cliff package in 2013.

"It is outrageous that lawmakers have fought all year over how to pay for essential public investments like our highway program, yet they have no problem putting hundreds of billions in mostly wasteful corporate tax breaks onto our nation's credit card.

"In particular, two of the biggest components of this package, making permanent the "active finance exception" for multinational financial corporations and the much-abused research credit, are nothing but ineffective giveaways to the nation's wealthiest corporations.

"To be sure, the package does include some needed help for working families, by extending President Obama's improvements to the EITC and the Child Credit. But these good things come at far too high a price.

"As a whole, this tax package is mostly a lobbyist-wrapped Christmas present for our nation's biggest corporations."