Gov. Lingle Promises to Focus on Tax Reform if Elected to U.S. Senate

REPORT FROM FORMER GOV. LINDA LINGLE’S U.S. SENATE CAMPAIGN – Governor Linda Lingle announced today that if she is elected to the U.S. Senate, she will focus on comprehensive tax reform and refrain from political gimmicks like the so-called “Buffett Rule.”

“It pains me to see that on the eve of Tax Day (April 17, 2012), Senators in Washington are playing political games by scheduling a procedural vote on S. 2230, which its authors describe as ‘a bill to reduce the deficit by imposing a minimum effective tax rate for high-income taxpayers.’  Knowing full well the measure does not have the support it needs to pass, the procedural vote was deliberately set up to let this measure fail,” Gov. Lingle said.

“Once again, Congress was presented with an opportunity to provide meaningful bipartisan tax reform to the people of Hawaii and our nation, but instead it chose to squander this time for political gain,” Gov. Lingle added.

The Monday April 16 procedural vote in the U.S. Senate is scheduled after Congress’ own Joint Committee on Taxation, which provides the official Congressional analysis of tax legislation, estimated that S. 2230 would generate an average sum of just $4.7 billion per year. To put this in perspective, if our federal government collected $4.7 billion per year for the next 250 years (which is longer than we have been a nation), the amount would not even cover the 2012 deficit, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates to be at least $1.2 trillion.

“In partnership with the private sector, government can spur job creation by instilling the certainty and confidence necessary for businesses to invest and to hire employees, and I am committed to do just that if elected as Hawaii’s next U.S. Senator,” Gov. Lingle said.

“I will not squander the people of Hawaii’s time and resources by engaging in this kind of partisan gamesmanship when it comes to any issue, especially tax reform and addressing the nation’s exploding debt. Instead, I will advocate for meaningful, comprehensive tax reform that brings down the rate for all taxpayers while retaining the most important deductions such as the mortgage interest and charitable contributions. Through these reforms, we will actually collect more revenue with a much broader tax base with everyone paying at a fair and simpler rate.” Gov. Lingle added.