[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 61 (Monday, April 3, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H4039-H4040]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                  REPUBLICAN TAX POLICIES HELP ECONOMY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hastings of Washington). Under the 
Speaker's announced policy of January 4, 1995, the gentleman from New 
Jersey [Mr. Saxton] is recognized during morning business for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, the last speaker from the other side of the 
aisle seemed to take great delight in looking back at the 1980's and 
suggesting that what was done during the 1980's was all wrong because 
we created a big debt.
  Well, I agree with the gentleman that what we did was all wrong 
because we created a big debt. But it was not the tax side of the 
equation that we did wrong. It was the spending side of the equation 
that we did wrong.
  As a matter of fact, during the 1980's, if one looks back, during the 
first 3 years of the 1980's we had virtually no growth in revenues, no 
growth because we were suffering from the hangover of the Carter 
administration.
  I can remember during that period of time when President Carter could 
not figure out what had gone wrong, and there was a new person who came 
on the scene. His name was Ronald Reagan.
  There are some of us on this side of the aisle, and I hope some on 
that side, who recognize that there were some things that were done 
right during the early 1980's to help put our economy back on the right 
track.
  One of those things occurred in 1981, 1982, and 1983. It was a 
redoing of our tax policy because we recognized that we could not get 
growth in Federal revenues until we got the national economy growing.
  And it was in 1981, 1982, and 1983 that we put a whole new face on 
our Tax Code, a whole new face that was intended to create economic 
growth, create jobs and at the same time create more Federal revenue. 
And, guess what, at the beginning of the 1980's we had Federal revenues 
of just over $500 billion, and by 1990 we had doubled our revenues.
  That is right. In spite of the fact that in 1981, 1982, and 1983 we 
had tax rate reductions, by 1990 we had doubled the amount of revenue 
that our colleagues from both sides of the aisle had to spend.
  And so if anyone thinks that the Reagan tax policies had something 
bad to do with our revenue picture, bad to do with economic growth or 
bad to do with the deficit situation, I think they are dead wrong.
  As a matter of fact, what we did wrong in the 1980's was that while 
we were doubling the amount of revenue that we had to spend we more 
than doubled spending, and I think all of us recognize today therefore 
that there were some things that we did right in the 1980's that had to 
do with economic growth where we had, on average, better than 4 percent 
growth.
  What we did wrong was that we had, on average, more than that in 
terms of growth in our spending programs. And so what we are trying to 
do on this side of the aisle, now that for the first time in 40 years 
we get to call some of the shots, we are trying to replicate what we 
did right in the 1980s and fix what we did wrong.
  We got to the end of the 1980's and President Bush went off to Andrew 
air Force Base in I think it was 1989 or 1990; and he said, look, we 
have got to fix this situation. The Democrat leadership agreed, and 
they agreed to raise taxes to fix the deficit problem.
   [[Page H4040]] Then in 1993 once again President Clinton decided 
with the Democrat leadership that once again we ought to do something 
to try to fix the deficit problem. In both cases taxes were raised; and 
in both cases, one succeeding the other, it was the biggest tax 
increase in the history of our country, in 1990 trumped by 1993.
  When we come and look at the books today we see that we have still 
got the same deficit problem because we have not done anything about 
spending, and by increasing taxes we have simply put a damper on the 
national economy.
  This year, the President's report on the economy suggests that in the 
years ahead we can anticipate a 2.3- to 2.5-percent growth in our 
national economy. And, once again, many of us think on this side of the 
aisle and I am sure there are some on yours who believe that this is 
because of the bad tax policy that was put in place in 1990 and 1993.
  What the Republican tax proposal for this year is, it is a growth 
package. It deals with capital gains to get growth. It deals with 
reforming the alternative minimum wage to get growth. It deals with 
promoting savings and investment by giving different treatment to the 
IRA's and putting in place what we call our super-IRA plan.
  It has to do with the senior citizens earning test, and it has to do 
with a family tax credit for middle America so that the families of 
America can share in this growth opportunity along with our Government 
and with our Federal revenues.
  So when the gentleman, the previous speaker from Illinois, Mr. 
Durbin, criticized us for the 1980's, we are willing to take our share 
of the criticism. We are willing to look at what we did wrong in the 
1980's, which was our failure to curtail spending, but we are not 
willing to concede, not for a minute, that good growth tax policy is 
what the American economy needs, and as a result, we will have the 
revenue to balance the budget by the year 2002.

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