[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 61 (Monday, April 3, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H4082]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


           H.R. 1215 RETURNS TAX MONEYS TO AMERICAN FAMILIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Kansas [Mr. Tiahrt] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TIAHRT. Mr. Speaker, this week we are going to see a clash of 
ideas once again as we have seen throughout the 100 days. This time it 
is going to be the big-government party that likes to take tax dollars 
and spend it at their whim versus the party of the people who give tax 
breaks to American families and others, like senior citizens.
  During the 1992 Presidential campaign, our current President 
campaigned on the middle-income tax cut. Instead, what has occurred, 
last August we had the world's largest tax increase, which took money 
out of the pockets of American families.
  H.R. 1215 is a bill that will return tax money to the families so 
they can spend it, because the party of the people believes that 
American families understand better how to spend their dollars than the 
Government.
  Each time we lose $1 to taxes, it is a loss of freedom. Many people 
across America, through higher taxes, have lost freedom, have lost the 
ability to spend money as they see fit.
  H.R. 1215 will also help America's senior citizens. Last August, the 
party of big government cut social security by $25 billion in the form 
of a tax increase. What this bill is going to do is restore that cut to 
Social Security. We are going to allow senior citizens to retain more 
of their income, allow them to meet their long-term health care needs, 
we are going to allow tax incentives to encourage individuals to 
purchase long-term health care insurance.
  We are also going to move, in H.R. 1215, to help Americans save. We 
are going to do this through the American Dream Savings Account. It is 
an IRA-type account that will allow families to contribute up to $4,000 
per year in these IRA accounts. These contributions are going to earn 
interest, and after they have been there for a 5-year period, we are 
going to allow those individuals to withdraw that money without penalty 
for first-time home purchasers, for post-secondary education expense 
withdrawals, education expenses, medical expenses. This is going to 
help those who have put away money to use it for a rainy day-type 
situation. Plus, it allows them to save for their retirement.
  If you look at the free democracies across the world, you will find 
by comparison Americans save less than they should, percentagewise. In 
Japan, for example, their savings are around 20 percent for average 
income. Here it is about 5 percent. This is a method of getting people 
around America to save money, put money away, and also put money into 
the capital stream to help create jobs.
  Next thing we are going to do in H.R. 1215 is to help farmers and 
ranchers and those in the timber industry by allowing a 50 percent 
reduction in capital gains taxes, capital gains indexing, estate and 
gift taxes.
  I want to tell you about one farmer I was very close to, my 
grandfather, J.W. Steele, who had a farm in South Dakota, and spent 
most of his time working very hard.
  He used to tell me as a young boy that farmers were an interesting 
lot because they spent their whole life poor but they died rich. Sure 
enough, when he passed on to the next life, he died as a millionaire. 
His farm went through the estate tax, and my parents had to purchase 
that farm at the cost of approximately the price of a new farm because 
of the way land prices had gone up and down in thattime frame. This is 
going to help people who are trying to keep the farms in their 
families, so that they can continue the tradition. It is going to help 
people. It is going to help ranchers to pass on what they have invested 
their entire lifetimes on.
                              {time}  1900

  Mr. Speaker, it will allow a situation where you are not just a 
millionaire for one day, but that you can go on, pass this on to your 
heirs. Also capital gains is very important when it comes to creating 
jobs.
  An uncle of mine who lives in Mecklenburg, NC, one time told me, 
``How many who are poor hired you for a job,'' and I had to tell him, 
``No, no one has,'' because it is those who have capital that hire 
people for jobs.
  So the capital gains tax reduction here is going to increase jobs 
here in America, and increasing jobs is what increases hope for 
America.
  We found out for giving people free money that their self-esteem is 
reduced. You cannot have self-esteem without accomplishment, and you 
cannot have accomplishment without work, and it is always helpful to 
have a job when you are going to work. So we are trying to restore hope 
in America by creating new jobs through capital gains reduction.
  Mr. Speaker, I spoke with the majority leader, the gentleman from 
Texas [Mr. Armey]. He talked about the benefits of capital gains tax, 
and that 90 percent of the benefits go to the workers and only about 
3.1 percent actually goes to people.
  So I encourage my fellow Members of the House to pass H.R. 1215 and 
give America hope for the future.

                          ____________________