Congressman Joe Heck Statement on House Fiscal Cliff Vote

WASHINGTON – Congressman Joe Heck (NV-03) issued the following statement after voting in favor of the Senate-passed fiscal cliff proposal.

“At midnight last night taxes increased for every American individual, family, and small business. Tonight, the House has passed legislation to permanently lower tax rates for 98% of Americans while also providing certainty to family-owned businesses by permanently locking in the rates for the estate tax. The bill also protects capital gains and dividends rates, which will provide seniors on fixed incomes with financial security. Additionally, this legislation included provisions important to Nevada that would help ensure seniors’ access to the physician of their choice, preserve the state and local sales tax deduction, and extend the Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007.

“While I would have preferred to see more spending cuts in this final package, I did vote for this compromise because ultimately it was more important to protect Nevada families and businesses from these unprecedented tax increases.  The work is far from over and I sincerely hope that we can work together to come up with real solutions to the fiscal problems facing our country.

“One thing we all can agree on is that Washington’s addiction to creating crises, pushing serious decisions to the eleventh hour, and passing temporary measures to avoid making tough choices continues to result in gross fiscal mismanagement and the erosion of the trust of the American people in their elected leaders. Hopefully this fiscal cliff situation has illustrated the urgent need to meet our challenges head-on so that we can nurse our country back to fiscal health.”