[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 62 (Tuesday, April 4, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H4152]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                DEMOCRATS NEVER SEE A TAX CUT THEY LIKE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Washington [Mrs. Smith] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. SMITH of Washington. As my colleagues know, it does not surprise 
me that the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Durbin] does not believe this 
is a time for a family tax cut. Until 6 months ago, I was not planning 
to come here. I was a write-in candidate, and I was sent by a blue 
collar Democrat district who said, ``We have had it with Congress. 
We're going to replace the person who is here who has never seen a tax 
cut she liked either,'' and they replaced her with me after I had 
passed a measure in our State that said no more tax increases without a 
toll of the people, after we had put our State on a budget of no larger 
budget increases than population and inflation. And guess what? They 
sent us a message, and they sent us a message because my colleagues who 
were here on the Democrat side have never in 42 years of being in 
control seen a middle-class tax cut that you liked.
  Let me tell you my other profession, and I do believe politics can be 
a good profession, we can make it that, my other one, though, is 
preparing tax returns and helping people with their tax planning.

                              {time}  1800

  For many years that is what I did for a living. Next April, let me 
tell the families that I worked for and helped plan their taxes what is 
going to happen on their taxes, and it will remove the rhetoric of the 
percentages and the crud that you have been hearing from the other 
side.
  If you have two kids, I am going to say you got a $1,000 bigger 
refund because you got those two kids than these folks that have been 
fighting and giving you all the rhetoric from the other side.
  You pass this tax cut, it is $1,000 in you pocket. You can fix the 
old car, you can take the kids to Disneyland, it is money in the bank 
if you have two kids.
  Now, if you have three kids, you get $1,500, and you need to also 
know that most kids are middle class, they are people right in the 
middle, mom and dad are working, they are under $100,000.
  This rhetoric about it going to the rich means if some rich person 
happens to have a kid, they get $500, too. Now let me ask you, if I 
line up six kids here, are you going to tell me one of them is not 
worth $500 and the other five are?
  Mr. SAXTON. Will the gentlewoman yield to me?
  Mrs. SMITH of Washington. I would be glad to.
  Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, the gentlewoman just made a point that most 
families that are going to benefit from the $500 tax credit are middle 
class, and that is, in fact, absolutely correct. This chart shows 
graphically just how that works out.
  As a matter of fact, according to this chart, which comes from the 
Tax Foundation, who will get the contract's $500 per child tax credit, 
it shows clearly that 85.5 percent of the people who will get the tax 
credit, the family earns less than $75,000 a year as the gentlewoman 
correctly pointed out, and that those over $75,000, there are only 12.5 
percent who will benefit from the tax cut.
  Mrs. SMITH of Washington. So it does not go to the rich unless some 
of us in the middle there are in the rich?
  Mr. SAXTON. I said the families that make $75,000 a year, perhaps the 
one spouse makes $40,000 and the other spouse makes $35,000 a year, 
that to most people today would be considered to be a middle-class 
family.
  Mrs. SMITH of Washington. So that family next April when they come in 
and have their tax return done, that family is going to get $500 off 
their taxes per child.
  What was the rate? You know, I had heard it but I cannot remember. 
What was the rate? In 1948 I do know it was 2 percent of the family 
income went to Federal tax. I know it is somewhere around a quarter 
now. Do you know what that is now?
  Mr. SAXTON. Well, on average today the total amount that government 
takes out of a family's budget is well over 40 percent.
  Mrs. SMITH of Washington. And the Federal takes quite a bit?
  Mr. SAXTON. This is an attempt to get back to what it was at an 
earlier time before inflation eroded the exemption that we have for 
members of our family.
  Mrs. SMITH of Washington. Well, you know, I think it is just about 
time----
  Mr. HOKE. Would the gentlewoman yield for one question?
  Mrs. SMITH of Washington. I would be glad to yield.
  Mr. HOKE. Does not what this chart reflect or prove is the central 
problem that we have got with taxation, and that is this chorus that 
you hear over and over and over which is to say, tax the rich, tax the 
rich, tax the rich? The problem with it is that there are not enough 
rich people to actually make the difference that they want to make.
  The reason that we have a tax burden that is strangling this country 
is because there are too many taxes on middle-income working men and 
women, that is the problem. If we could go further, we would. That is 
the solution in easing the burden on the middle class.
  Mrs. SMITH of Washington. That is right. I think when we do it 
tomorrow the American people are going to be tickled.

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