John Boehner, January 5, 2007

Two recent votes in the U.S. House provide different examples of how the 110th Congress might spend your tax dollars. If you pay taxes every year, you’ll appreciate the first example. If you think you pay enough - or too much - in taxes, you’ll be disappointed by the second.

The first example involves something I wrote about in a recent weekly column. As you may know, last September I led the House in adopting comprehensive earmark reforms that required the sponsors of all earmarks to be publicly disclosed. I wondered whether Democrat leaders would renew these reforms in the 110th Congress. In my column I wrote about my desire to work with Speaker Pelosi to make sure it happened.

I’m proud to report that late last week -- at the urging of fiscal conservatives in Congress and around the country - the House renewed Republican earmark rules requiring transparency and accountability in the earmark process. The goal is to limit the number of earmarks and ultimately save tax dollars that are otherwise wasted on frivolous projects and programs.

While these rules are a big victory for fiscal discipline, they are also a good reminder that we have a long way to go to get spending under control.

But spending restraint may not be on everyone’s agenda. My second example gives reason to believe some in Washington are more interested in raising taxes than cutting spending.

Twelve years ago in the Contract with America, House Republicans promised to prohibit unfair retroactive tax increases. We also pledged to require a three-fifths ‘supermajority’ vote in the House before any tax increase could be approved. Our goal was to protect American families against unfair tax hikes by Washington politicians. On the opening day of the 104th Congress in 1995, we fulfilled our pledge, voting to enact both measures.

What would a retroactive tax look like? Imagine you’ve bought a new car. Two years go by. One day you get a bill in the mail from the car dealership. It says that even though you paid off the car, they’ve decided to charge you an extra $1,000 retroactively, and if you don’t pony up the cash you’ll face fines and possibly jail time.

Now imagine you got the same letter from the IRS. The letter tells you your taxes from last year or the year before went up, and even though you paid your taxes on time, you now owe the government some more. If you think that sounds crazy, buckle up -- it just might happen.

To protect taxpayers’ wallets from spendthrift politicians, House Republicans recently offered a proposal to prohibit repealing or ignoring the Contract’s rules against unfair tax increases. Unfortunately -- though predictably -- our motion was defeated by the new majority.

With the barriers against unfair tax hikes in place we enacted significant tax relief for working families and small businesses. We passed the child tax credit, relief from the marriage penalty, tax-free 529 accounts for college savings, tax-free health savings accounts (HSA), and others. We cut taxes on dividends, lowering the tax burden for American seniors who rely on dividend income. All of this has helped the economy grow exponentially.

So how might the 110th Congress approach spending? It’s hard to say. House Republicans want to work with our Democrat counterparts to balance the budget, keep taxes low, reduce earmarks and government waste, and restore trust between the American people and their Congress. But we will NOT betray our principles, and we will do everything we can to drive reforms that don’t involve raiding family budgets.

Congressman John Boehner is the House Minority Leader. Boehner, a Republican, represents Ohio's Eighth Congressional District, which includes Miami, Butler, Preble, Darke, and Mercer Counties.