[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 62 (Tuesday, April 4, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H4146-H4147]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  SUPPORT FOR A CAPITAL GAINS TAX CUT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Weldon] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak out in support of 
our tax package coming before the House to be voted on this week, and 
Mr. Speaker, I specifically want to talk about our capital gains tax 
cut. I had a woman in my district who called me in support of our 
capital gains tax cut, and contrary to what we may hear from our 
colleagues on the left that this is for rich people, well connected 
people, fat cats, so to speak, this lady was actually unemployed. She 
is at home and she is recovering from cancer surgery. And indeed, she 
is a widow, her husband was killed in an automobile accident 5 years 
ago. But she called me to tell me that she supports the Republican 
capital gains tax cut because she has a house that she is putting up 
for sale and she needs that money to pay her medical bills and to pay 
for her son's education.
  We are going to hear a lot of rhetoric from the left that this 
capital gains tax cut benefits the rich. But in reality the number of 
people that it benefits, by and large, are middle-class working people. 
If you add up the dollars, yes, the dollars suggest that it helps the 
rich. But if you add up the number of people who are benefiting from 
it, the vast majority of the people are middle-class working people, 
people earning less than $50,000 a year.
  There is another benefit from our capital gains tax cut which goes 
totally neglected by the opponents of initiative; it is that the people 
who benefit from this then appreciate those capital gains and when they 
do not have to send that money to Washington and they take that money 
and they invest that money, it creates jobs. It creates jobs for 
working class people.
  There is something much, much better in our economy when you 
stimulate investment and when that creates jobs than when jobs are 
created by make-work projects here in Washington. This capital gains 
tax cut is going to help the middle class, it is going to help working 
people, it is going to help unemployed people who are looking for work, 
and I support this tax package.
  Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. WELDON of Florida. I am happy to yield to the gentleman from New 
Jersey.
  Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I would like to point out what the gentleman 
from Florida [Mr. Weldon] mentioned here just a few minutes ago is 
demonstrated on this chart. He said that most of the people who benefit 
from capital gains on an annual year-to-year basis earn less than 
$50,000 a year. And that is absolutely correct. If you take out the one 
year when they have gotten the benefit of the capital gain and average 
all of their other years out, as a matter of fact, 38.4 percent of the 
people on a year-to-year basis actually earn less than $50,000 a year 
and 22.4 percent, for a total of almost 60 percent of the people, earn 
less than $100,000 a year who benefit from the capital gains tax cut 
that we are suggesting.
  So, when our friends from the other side of the aisle suggest that it 
is the rich folks that benefit, this chart tells a different tale.
  Mr. WELDON of Florida. I really appreciate the gentleman from New 
Jersey sharing that and that chart illustrating the point very 
effectively.
  There is one other thing I want to mention to my colleagues on the 
left. We are in a competition worldwide with the Europeans, with the 
people on the Pacific rim. For competitiveness sake we need this 
capital gains tax cut. If you go to those countries, their capital 
gains rates are much, lower than ours are. The result of that is 
capital tends to move out of the United States into those other 
countries, so if we lower our capital gains rate it will not only 
create jobs, it will not only stimulate the economy, it will not only 
help the middle class, working class people, unemployed people looking 
for jobs, it will also bring foreign investment into the United States 
which further stimulates our economy, strengthens our dollar which is 
currently taking a beating in foreign markets.
  Mr. Speaker, this bill is good for America, it is good for working-
class 
[[Page H4147]] Americans, middle-class Americans, unemployed Americans.
  Mr. Speaker, I support this bill. I encourage our colleagues on the 
other side of the aisle to put partisan politics aside and join us in a 
bill that is good for the whole Nation.


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