Talk:United States House Committee on Ways and Means

Important Issues that have Come Through Ways and Means

"Major issues that have gone through this committee read like a laundry list of important bills, including welfare reform, a Medicare prescription drug benefit, Social Security reform, President George W. Bush's tax cuts, and all trade agreements, including NAFTA and CAFTA"

Is there a reason that President George W. Bush's tax cuts are mentioned specifically? In general, do tax cuts go through somewhere else? If not, a change should either be made to refer to major recent issues or the current president's name should be removed as unnecessary partisanship.

I agree with the comment on the Bush tax cuts. All tax reduction measures and increases pass through this committee. While the Bush cuts have historical relevance as the most recent ones considered by the committee, perhaps a different description focusing on the committees key jurisdictions would be more appropriate.

Also, the last sentence indicating that a seat on Ways and Means is a good way to earn campaign contributions implies a quid pro quo for committee members. Campaign contributions are an essential part of any congressman's reelection campaigns. Someone on Ways and Means may be considered particularly influential, and therefore interest groups may want to support those people through contributions, but I believe the current wording implies a certain POV that campaign contributions are a key reason people serve on the committee. Comments like this belong on the wiki page regarind campaign finance, but not on a committee summary. I recommend delection of that sentence.Dcmacnut 01:03, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

111th Congress information outdated

As the note on the page states, this article hasn't been sufficiently updated since the opening of the 112th Congress.

"Pete Stark resigned as acting chairman, so Sander Levin holds that position until the Congress ends."

I propose that this sentence either be removed, or perhaps updated: "Pete Stark resigned as acting chairman, and so Sander Levin held that position until Congress ended."

Perhaps it should also be noted in the introduction whom now holds that position (Dave Camp), as in the Members section of the article.

-- DavidGay (talk) 13:50, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

"of" or "on"

The header and the wording in the article are not in agreement. Is it the Committee "on" or the Committee "of"? TaxAcc0untant (talk) 21:41, 2 August 2011 (UTC)

Morelle

Representative Joe Morelle (D-NY 25) should be added to the committee; he said during his campaign he would seek a seat on the committee and has been elected for the current term. The word he gave should be followed through. 98.10.165.90 (talk) 02:26, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

Is the committee name inspired by Xenophon's essay?

[ways and means] is an essay about raising taxation and revenue for classical Athens, including a suggestion of greatly increasing the use of slaves in the silver mines - a particularly lethal and unpleasant form of slavery. The founders of the committee may well have had a classical education which included it, which might make the name a kind of dark humour, a reminder that the measures from which policy are funded are not always nice. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mgrazebrook (talk • contribs) 23:25, 23 April 2022 (UTC)

Infobox edit not working?

I'm trying to add Senate counterpart, the Finance Committee, which is under the Jurisdiction section. But that section isn't appearing? 2603:8000:B600:4000:8899:65F4:6FCC:FD4F (talk) 17:26, 24 December 2022 (UTC)