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Rep. John Yarmuth

Mr. Speaker, I was very pleased last night to hear President Obama talk about the defining issue of our time, the great economic disparity that we face in this society and the need to have a fair taxation system. Of course, what is fair is in the eye of the beholder, and the recent disclosure of Governor Mitt Romney's tax returns offers us a great laboratory to talk about that.

On $21 million in income, he paid $3 million in taxes. The question for us shouldn't be whether $3 million is fair or whether a 13.9 percent rate is fair. The question is, did he deserve a preferential rate? Did that $21 million of income educate anyone, did it create jobs, did it provide important research, did it build infrastructure? If it provided a broad societal benefit, then that preferential rate is justified. If not, then we can't explain to hardworking Americans how he pays a lower rate than they do.

Fairness is incredibly vital to the survival of our society, and we need to emphasize that always.