[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 62 (Tuesday, April 4, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H4108-H4109]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                          CONTRACT BILL FLAWS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 1995, the gentlewoman from Colorado [Mrs. Schroeder] is 
recognized during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, I must say this is a very interesting 
week as we watch the 100 days come to a close. I am really astounded 
that there is going to be a circus coming to the Hill tomorrow. Think 
of the images you can have, bread and circuses, three-ring circuses.
  But as we laugh about that and as we wonder who in the world thought 
that was a good image, let me talk about what we did last week and what 
we now know and how upset many of us on this side of the aisle are.
  Last week, we passed a bill that finally, finally, gave working-class 
Americans the right to deduct their health care premiums. We absolutely 
should have, we should have done it long ago.
  And one of the reasons ordinary people often do not get their tax 
benefits as soon is they are not here with PAC money and they are not 
special interests, and so they usually have to go to the end of the 
line. So we were all celebrating. Finally, we are getting this up. Is 
that not wonderful? Working-class Americans are going to finally be 
able to get some kind of deduction for their health care insurance. 
Hooray.
  But now we have learned what was tucked in that little bill. And 
tucked in that little bill was a $63 million tax rebate jewel for none 
other than Rupert Murdoch.
  Now, this 100 days began with Rupert Murdoch and a book deal with the 
Speaker, and it ends with him getting a $63 million tax rebate stuck on 
this tax bill for working-class Americans. I find that unconscionable 
when what we were told what we were doing was shutting off the special 
benefit to this entire class of people.
  This was a special benefit dealing with selling of broadcasting 
stations. Well, apparently, we cut it off for everybody in the world 
except one guy, who is a little more equal than other guys. But when 
you contrast his status with working class Americans, you can see why 
his needs got moved to the front and they found some way to sneak it 
through.
  The other part of this bill that was so terribly disappointing was in 
the Senate they did some very good work. What did they do? They closed 
a loophole. They closed a loophole that had been allowing billionaires 
to move off shore, to move off shore and then avoid paying taxes. So 
they very correctly closed this loophole which would save the Treasury 
about $3 billion or more, roughly.
  We have read over and over again how some tax lawyer kind of 
discovered this a couple years ago and so it has become the new exit 
way for all sorts of people to exit the IRS and their 1040 code, for 
those who have a lot at stake.
  Obviously, there are many countries who would be very willing to 
welcome these billionaires because they think they will then spend 
their money in that country.
  Well, unfortunately, even though we had three votes on this issue 
here, the House would not yield to them, so that is the other flaw in 
this bill dealing with working-class Americans trying to get their 
deduction for health care that they so, so deserve is that we did not 
close this other loophole because the House refused to close that 
loophole. So billionaires can still escape taxation by throwing their 
citizenship overboard. I find that horrifying.
  I really hope what we do, now that we have discovered how flawed this 
is, is that we can get a commitment that the President would veto this 
bill, and we could just bring it back clean the way it should be.
  I think the other interesting thing is that the President cannot 
knock out special privileges in tax bills. Because when you talk about 
being able to do line-item veto, the line-item veto has been allowed on 
the spending, but when it was offered to take out special tax benefits, 
then it was turned down.
  Now, everybody knows a special tax benefit costs just as much money 
as a spending thing. Is it not interesting 
[[Page H4109]] that we are willing to give the line-item veto for one 
thing but not the other? And I think it goes back to the same old 
business as usual, special interest being able to tromp all over all of 
us the way the elephants are going to tromp all over the grass tomorrow 
when the circus comes up here.
  So I hope people put all of these things together, and I hope we all 
say enough is enough. We started the 100 days saying we are going to 
have real reform, and there was not going to be business as usual. We 
end it seeing business as usual all over the place.
  I hope that we can bring this to closure and finally really do some 
housecleaning and get this place cleaned up and get this bill cleaned 
up and have working Americans move to the front of the line, not 
billionaires.

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