VIDEO: GOP Leaders Highlight How Tax Hike Would Fry Neighborhood Restaurants

House Republicans are gearing up to fight the Senate Democrats’ extension of some of the Bush-era tax cuts with a message that an extension of all of the cuts is needed for America’s small businesses.

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After “Stop the Tax Hike Day” in home districts on Friday, the GOP will vote on a tax plan this week before heading home for the summer recess.

Paving the way for that vote is a video released today by Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) office, in which third-generation restaurant owner-operator Michael Passalacqua tells the story of Angelo’s Restaurant and its role in the economy.

“My family has been in business for 73 years and I truly see us as a fabric of the community,” Passalacqua says in the video. “This economy is just absolutely teetering and raising taxes on anybody at this particular time seems to me to be relatively foolish.”

With consumer spending in danger from a looming tax hike, Passalacqua says, “It’s just going to be tons of money dropped right out of the economy immediately.”

Ninety-three percent of food locations are small businesses employing fewer than 50 employees, according to the National Restaurant Association, and restaurants employ nearly one in 10 Americans.

“With the economy already at a near standstill, the president’s proposed tax hike on American small businesses comes at the worst possible time for job creators,” McCarthy said. “Independent reports confirm that raising taxes on more than 900,000 small businesses threatens 710,000 jobs and would reduce economic output by 1.3 percent. It just doesn’t make any sense to punish American families and small businesses already struggling to make ends meet in this tough economy.”

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House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) confirmed the House will vote this week on H.R. 8, the Job Protection and Recession Prevention Act sponsored by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.), and H.R. 6169, the Pathway to Job Creation Through A Simpler, Fairer Tax Code Act, sponsored by Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.).

“Two years ago, the President said extending these same tax rates was the ‘right thing to do’ for jobs, the middle class and small business. Keeping taxes low is still the right thing to do to get this economy growing again,” Cantor said. “In the near term, our plan gives working families and small businesses the certainty that they will not face a tax increase. In the long term, we will reform the tax code to spur sustained economic growth.”

Watch the “Taxation Nation” video from the heart of Pennsylvania:

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