[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 59 (Thursday, March 30, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H3986]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   DEDUCTION FOR HEALTH INSURANCE SHOULD GO TO EMPLOYEES OF THE SELF-
                              EMPLOYED TOO

  (Ms. PELOSI asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, just when we thought we had seen it all in 
attempts by the Republicans in Congress to give tax breaks to their 
wealthy friends, they have gone beyond the pale. It is hard to imagine, 
but today the Republicans will bring a conference report on H.R. 831, a 
bill to provide a 25-percent deduction for health insurance for the 
self-employed. That is good. But they rejected the opportunity, the 
amendment, that would have allowed that tax deduction to go for the 
employees of the self-employed. Instead in the bill they insisted that 
the conferees drop a Senate provision that would have closed a tax 
loophole for billionaires. Under current law the wealthiest Americans 
can take advantage of a tax loophole by renouncing their citizenship, 
thereby avoiding taxes on gains made while they were U.S. citizens. 
These people made their money benefiting from our country, from the 
security, from the democracy, from the work force, and, yes, even from 
the tax laws in this country. Now they are given to give up their 
citizenship. They are given a tax break at the expense of the employees 
of the self-employed.
  Mr. Speaker, this is an outrage, this is a shame, this is downright 
unpatriotic.


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