[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 94 (Tuesday, July 19, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                         NATIONAL DIVIDEND PLAN

                                 ______


                        HON. W.J. (BILLY) TAUZIN

                              of louisiana

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 19, 1994

  Mr. TAUZIN. Mr. Speaker, for much of the 103d Congress we have been 
occupied with concerns over the Federal budget deficit; we have debated 
numerous and varied ideas to limit spending or raise revenue or accept 
some combination of the two. The common goal has been to reduce the 
deficit--a deficit that both liberals and conservatives, Republicans 
and Democrats, see as a threat to our national economic health and 
long-term stability. We have grappled with constitutional amendments to 
gain a mandatory balanced budget and each appropriation bills seems to 
bring new attempts to impose generic limits. We have bills to cut 
spending across the board, to target programs ranging from the tea 
tasters to the B1 bomber, all in an effort to get the deficit under 
control.
  Through all this Mr. Speaker, we have not utilized the most effective 
resource this Nation has to accomplish this critical task: We have not 
given the American voter a tangible stake in this country's financial 
progress. The National Dividend Plan [NDP], an idea born in the fifties 
in the mind and heart of John H. Perry, Jr. and which I have introduced 
as H.R. 430, does just that.
  The NDP doesn't just encourage citizen involvement--involvement is 
guaranteed through the sharing of the Federal profits of corporate 
enterprise. This profit sharing is achieved by redirecting revenue 
collected from the corporate income tax from Federal coffers directly 
back to those who generated it: The American labor force. This would be 
done only in years when the budget is balanced or in surplus, giving 
all voting citizens a direct stake in the outcome of the Federal 
budgeting process.
  John Perry is a successful businessman and philanthropist. He 
recently wrote of the NDP and I want to share his thoughts with my 
colleagues. I hope it will help persuade each of you to join me in this 
effort.

                 The National Dividend Plan: It's Time

                        (By John H. Perry. Jr.)

       ``It's spending, stupid!''
       For Fiscal Year 1995, the President's budget proposes 
     spending of $1.518 trillion--that's $2,880,000 every minute 
     of every day. And we will pile up an additional $176 billion 
     of debt even while we are paying net interest of $198.8 
     billion on our existing national debt of $4.6 trillion. Think 
     of it, how would you spend $48,000 a second next year? More 
     importantly, how could you do that knowing that it adds 
     $335,000 a minute to your debt even while you pay $378,000 a 
     minute in interest on existing debt.
       If, resorting to the sport metaphor which dominates much 
     political discussion these days, it's ``Three strikes and 
     you're out!'' why is the hottest debate topic on Capitol Hill 
     these days the Balanced Budget Constitutional Amendment? 
     We're already out of the box.
       Congress swung--and missed--with the Budget Impoundment and 
     Control Act, it swung and missed again with Gramm-Rudman-
     Hollings, and then, called strike three--the Omnibus Budget 
     Reconciliation Act, not only did spending continue, but taxes 
     were increased.
       Members of the Congress, House and Senate, are again 
     earnestly discussing the need for discipline in spending, but 
     build accounting devices into a proposed Constitutional 
     Amendment which will also provide loopholes for minorities 
     who would on the one hand expand revenue and on the other 
     limit spending.
       Instead of recognizing the futility of 535 Members of 
     Congress trying to restrain themselves from doing what 260 
     million Americans want them to do, it's time that we create 
     an environment in which 260 million people demand that the 
     535 do what needs to be done.
       The National Dividend Plan provides not only the 
     opportunity, but also the demand. After forty years ``in the 
     wilderness,'' it is an idea whose time has surely come. In 
     1952, having found some success for myself as I pursued the 
     American dream, I proposed a program by which the public 
     revenue from the profits of the industrial might of America--
     Federal corporate income tax revenues--be returned directly 
     to the people of America, the source of that might. It was, 
     for its day, a radical national ``employee stock ownership 
     plan.'' In a simpler time, a time of only marginal deficits, 
     and occasional surpluses, it was just a way to ``invest'' 
     each voting citizen with a stake in increasing the economic 
     might of the nation--emphasizing American industry--and by 
     participating in the political process--registered voters 
     would become actors in ``growing'' America.
       The National Dividend Plan is majestic in its simplicity:
       1. Create a National Dividend Trust Fund, financed 
     primarily by Federal income taxes on corporate profits and 
     capital gains taxes; distribute the revenues from the Fund, 
     quarterly, equally to all registered voters, tax-free.
       2. Impose a five-year spending freeze on the Federal 
     government as the Fund is established and adjustments are 
     made in Federal budgeting.
       3. To eliminate, and restrain, Federal deficits, provide 
     that no distributions from the Trust Fund be made to 
     individuals until the Federal budget is in surplus--because 
     each registered citizen-voter is equally entitled to Fund 
     distributions, each citizen, rich or poor, becomes equally 
     vested with an interest in critically weighing Federal 
     programming.
       4. Eliminate the double taxation of corporate dividends for 
     stockholders.
       5. Freeze the corporate tax at current rates to provide 
     economic stability.
       Polls have consistently shown results which indicate that 
     the American public recognizes the need to limit spending and 
     to balance our national budget. Individuals know that they 
     must balance their checkbooks or face declining living 
     standards and limited options for future activity. At the 
     same time, political realities have encouraged legislators to 
     respond to special interest constituencies rather than to 
     make the tough choices necessary to live within our means.
       The National Dividend Plan, by giving every registered 
     voter a stake in controlling Federal spending, will enforce 
     discipline where it belongs: in the relationship between 
     voters and their voices in Washington. Without a meaningful 
     incentive for voters to demand discipline in Federal spending 
     on the part of legislators, legislators have no incentive to 
     practice meaningful discipline.
       More to the point, since a properly established National 
     Dividend Plan would eliminate deficit spending within a few 
     years, a five year period is built into the legislation, the 
     American voter becomes a stakeholder in the economic success 
     of America's business enterprise.
       Buying American becomes not only a statement of faith in 
     America's businesses and industry, it also gives each voter a 
     return on his or her investment of time and energy to the 
     success of our nation's productive enterprise. And, because 
     America will become more productive it will continue to be 
     the most successful exporter of national goods and services 
     in the world.
       Finally, of course, it is important to understand that, 
     while the proceeds of the National Dividend are not taxable, 
     the earned income of citizens is. A vibrant economy will 
     continue to generate Federal funds to meet truly national 
     needs--and the growth of business and industry generated by 
     increases in productivity and the competitiveness of American 
     goods and services will mean that America's Federal 
     enterprise can grow as the nation grows, and even meet 
     important new needs. But the practice of responding to 
     special interests, ``oiling'' the hundreds of squeaky wheels 
     that now make up not only our Federal programs but the way 
     that we legislate, will have to pass the ``means'' test: Is 
     it worth it if it means that my dividend is reduced? Some 
     demands will meet that test: certainly challenges to our 
     national sovereignty or national interests around the world 
     which may demand defense expenditures, unusual events such as 
     the disasters which have occasionally resulted in our people 
     demonstrating that we are the most compassionate nation on 
     earth, and other events which may call on our enlightened 
     self-interest to meet our national interest.
       America is a nation built on a free economy, but its 
     economy is no longer free--it is captive to the 35 years of 
     deficits since the last balanced budget. Only the people of 
     America, whose self-interest and generosity generated the 
     budgetary nightmare we now face wake up and bring a bright 
     new day.
       The National Dividend Plan gives America's voters not only 
     the opportunity to continue to generously meet national 
     needs, but the self-interest to demand that those needs meet 
     the test of being measured by the light of day. And 
     legislators, who now seek shelter in the ``discipline'' of a 
     hazy Constitutional Amendment will find the glow of a new day 
     of enlightened voter participation in the budget process. 
     H.R. 430, legislation implementing a National Dividend Plan, 
     is before the 103rd Congress. It's time that we as voters 
     demand of our legislators that they not only return to the 
     citizenry a means by which to measure their economic 
     management of America, but also a share of the means which 
     measures the economic strength of America.

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