[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 74 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 74

  To commend the budget deficit reduction and tax relief for working 
families that has occurred under the Clinton Administration and to urge 
the Republican Congressional majority to take up without delay a budget 
                  resolution, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 15, 1997

Mr. Dorgan (for Mr. Daschle) submitted the following resolution; which 
   was referred jointly pursuant to the order of August 4, 1977, as 
   modified by the order of April 11, 1986, to the Committees on the 
Budget and Government Affairs, with instructions that if one Committee 
     reports, the other Committee have thirty days to report or be 
                              discharged.

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  To commend the budget deficit reduction and tax relief for working 
families that has occurred under the Clinton Administration and to urge 
the Republican Congressional majority to take up without delay a budget 
                  resolution, and for other purposes.

Whereas the United States economy continues to expand at a brisk pace after 6 
        consecutive years of economic growth;
Whereas unemployment and inflation continue to remain at the lowest combined 
        rate in 30 years;
Whereas median family income is experiencing its fastest growth since the 1960s;
Whereas taxes as a percentage of gross domestic product are lower in the United 
        States, at 31.7 percent, than in any of the Group of Seven 
        industrialized countries, the average for which is 36.5 percent;
Whereas according to the Congressional Budget Office, Federal taxes as a share 
        of national income were 19.4 percent, the same level as in 1969, and are 
        projected to fall to 18.8 percent in 2002, not including any tax cuts 
        which Congress may yet enact this year;
Whereas according to the Congressional Budget Office, the total Federal 
        effective tax rate, including income, payroll, and excise taxes, for a 
        family making $40,000 per year averages 19 percent, of which only 6 
        percent is attributable to individual income taxes, the lowest of any of 
        the major industrialized countries;
Whereas the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has calculated that the 
        typical American generates the income necessary to pay his or her annual 
        Federal personal income tax by January 20th of each year;
Whereas strong economic growth, low inflation and unemployment, and declining 
        tax burdens on typical American families have been achieved at the same 
        time that the Federal budget deficit has been reduced by nearly two-
        thirds;
Whereas every Republican Senator voted against the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation 
        Act of 1993, which cut the deficit by 63 percent, lowered interest 
        rates, stimulated job creation, and boosted gains in personal income;
Whereas the 1993 budget legislation cut taxes on 15,000,000 workers and their 
        families (40,000,000 Americans) and made 90 percent of small businesses 
        eligible for corporate tax reductions;
Whereas President Clinton has submitted to Congress a budget proposal that would 
        further reduce taxes on working families, including tax credits and 
        deductions designed to make post-secondary education and training more 
        affordable;
Whereas the Congressional Budget Office has certified that the President's 
        budget proposal would eliminate the fiscal deficit by 2002, achieving 
        the first budgetary surplus in the United States since 1969;
Whereas the principal budget legislation offered in the 105th Congress by the 
        Republican majority would make it more difficult to balance the budget 
        by extending $526,000,000,000 of tax cuts over the next 10 years, more 
        than an estimated three-quarters of which would benefit the best-off 20 
        percent of taxpayers rather than middle class working families;
Whereas as many Americans rush to submit their income tax returns to the 
        Internal Revenue Service by April 15, Congress is poised to miss its own 
        April 15 deadline to pass a budget resolution because the Republican 
        majority in the 105th Congress has emphasized symbolic political 
        gestures in connection with the Federal budget rather than the 
        bipartisan construction of legislation to eliminate the deficit; and
Whereas the continuing failure by the Republican majority to advance a budget 
        resolution has the effect of withholding from middle class Americans the 
        tax cuts proposed for them by the President, undermining progress toward 
        a balanced budget, and denying the economy the benefit of the lower 
        long-term interest rates that a balanced budget would promote: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that the Republican 
majority should take up without delay a budget resolution that balances 
the budget by 2002, targets its tax relief on working and middle class 
families to the same degree as the President's budget proposal, and 
protects important domestic priorities such as medicare, medicaid, 
education, and the environment.
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