[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 61 (Monday, April 3, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E761]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


      REGARDING THE REPEAL OF THE 1993 CLINTON SOCIAL SECURITY TAX

                                 ______


                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, April 3, 1995
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, this week we will have the 
opportunity to right the wrong done to America's seniors only 2 years 
ago when President Clinton pushed through Congress--against the vote of 
every Republican--a tax package raising the tax on Social Security 
benefits.
  The Clinton tax hike increased the financial burden on some 9 million 
middle-income seniors by an estimated $500 per year. And let us not 
forget that the Clinton tax package hit seniors in other ways as well, 
including the increased energy tax and increased Medicare premiums.
  Furthermore, this was all laid on top of already inequitable 
circumstances such as the ``notch'' disparity and the Social Security 
earnings test. After years of service to their Nation as workers, 
soldiers, mothers and fathers, America's seniors hardly deserve this 
biased treatment in their retirement years.
  It wasn't until the mid-1980's that the Federal Government began to 
tax seniors' Social Security benefits. At that time--and against my 
vote, I might add--Congress applied Federal income taxes to 50 percent 
of Social Security benefits for seniors earning $25,000 as individuals 
or $32,000 as couples. President Clinton increased to 85 percent the 
amount of income subject to taxation for seniors making only $34,000 a 
year.
  The only message this conveys is that careful savings and planning 
for retirement do not pay off. Is this the message we want to send to 
American workers?
  Furthermore, the Social Security tax is a clear violation of the pact 
with America's seniors which the Social Security Program represents. 
Seniors work hard all their life and have a substantial portion of 
their income taken from their pay check and placed in holding for their 
retirement as Social Security benefits. To tax this income when seniors 
collect it is no less than double taxation.
  The Social Security tax should be eliminated. I encourage my 
colleagues to take this first step toward resolution and to support the 
repeal of the Clinton Social Security tax hike as included in H.R. 
1215.


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