The majority that controls Congress has left much to chance in adjourning until after the elections....and I fear that many Kansans may have to pay the price.

The Senate, led by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and the House, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) have done nothing to protect Americans and our fragile economy from what will be the biggest tax hike in history in less than 90 days should bipartisan and popular tax relief fail to be extended when Congress returns for a lame duck session on November 15.

I am very disappointed that we did not give Kansas small business employers and families the certainty of knowing what their tax obligation will be next year before we adjourned. Much to my dismay, Congress left without settling this question, which is too important to be relegated to a controversial and unpopular lame duck session.

Over the past two years, the majority controlling the Congress has spent billions of dollars in so-called stimulus bills, tried to enact (thankfully without success) Cap and Tax legislation that would threaten small businesses and farms, and enacted such a large overhaul of health care reform that many people have no idea what health care options will be available to them in a few years.

Taken together, the sweeping effects of this out-of-control deficit spending won’t be fully realized until our grandchildren have to pay the bill. And still the national unemployment rate hovers near 10 percent.

Extending the bipartisan tax relief, which was put in place in 2001, is the right thing to do. Now is not the time to raise taxes on any taxpayer. Fortunately, there is growing bipartisan agreement on this in the Congress...despite the Reid-Pelosi objections.

With fewer than 90 days left, the Majority and the President still have not yet put forth a bill to prevent a tax hike on all taxpayers. If they do not, individual income tax rates will increase, the child tax credit will be cut in half, dividend and capital gains taxes will increase, and the estate tax will return to its pre-2001 level.

If tax relief is not extended, a family of four earning an average of $50,000 will pay more than $2,100 in higher taxes.

The president and some of his supporters in Congress propose to extend tax relief to some, but not all, taxpayers. They want to extend current income tax rates and dividend and capital gains rates only to individuals earning less than $200,000 or families earning less than $250,000. They want to raise tax rates on those earning above these amounts – and that means higher taxes on small businesses, because many small businesses report their income on individual income tax returns.

Allowing this tax relief to expire means higher income taxes for nearly 750,000 small businesses, subjects $500 billion – half a trillion dollars – in small business income to higher taxes, and increases the marginal effective tax rate by at least 17 percent on small businesses.

The president acknowledges that small businesses create 70 percent of the jobs in the country. Small business employ about 25 percent of the workforce. By one estimate, an increase in the top tax rates could cost jobs by reducing small business hiring by as much as 18 percent.

These tax hikes would have a significant impact on the economy here in our state, most notably in the number of jobs and change in personal income.

By one estimate, over the next 10 years, Kansas would lose, on average, 6,841 jobs annually, lose, per household, $2,440 in total disposable personal income, and see total individual income taxes increase by $3.95 million.

We should not be raising taxes on hard-working families and small businesses who are the leading job creators in the country at a time when we are trying to get our economy back on track and encourage job creation. Small business and Kansas families are frustrated at the way government is spending their hard-earned dollars. They deserve to keep their money in their own pocket rather than handing more over to Uncle Sam to spend.

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