[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 62 (Tuesday, April 4, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H4153-H4154]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


       SENIOR CITIZENS WILL BENEFIT FROM THE REPUBLICAN TAX BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Miller] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Mr. Speaker, the previous speaker talked about 
who are the winners in this tax bill that we are voting on tomorrow. 
Well, let me tell about who are some of the winners, and those are the 
senior citizens of this country.
  The seniors represent a very large portion of my congressional 
district in Florida. In fact I have more senior citizens in my 
congressional district than any other congressional district in the 
country, and this bill has significant benefits for the seniors of our 
country. Let me tell you why.
  First of all, we hear about the child tax credit and the capital 
gains. The seniors would support this tax bill just for those two 
reasons alone. For the child tax credit, who knows better the cost of 
raising a child than the senior citizens? It is their children and 
grandchildren who are raising these kids in the country today, and they 
know they need that $500 tax credit. So that is one reason the seniors 
will support this bill.
  Capital gains. Senior citizens have a lot to gain from the capital 
gains. When seniors retire from up north and move to my district in 
Florida, they are selling their small business, they are selling real 
estate, they are selling their investments, they are selling stocks, 
and they are moving to Florida. They are paying capital gains.
  Mr. Speaker, capital gains affects real people that are not wealthy 
people, and that includes senior citizens. So for those two reasons 
they should support the bill alone, but there are a number of very 
specific pieces of this legislation that help senior citizens 
specifically. Let me identify two of them. One is the repeal of the 
1993 tax increase of social Security and the other one is raising the 
earnings limit on senior citizens.
  Mr. HOKE. Would the gentleman yield for that?
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Yes.
  Mr. HOKE. The gentleman said there were some winners, and the senior 
citizens are the winners under the bill. Have the senior citizens been 
the losers in the past year or so?
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Yes, seniors are always on the losing end. In 
1993 that tax bill increased the tax on Social Security. Now, I don not 
know, this is over $34,000 worth of income. That is not a wealthy 
person to me. They raised the tax on Social Security for someone making 
$34,000 a year. That is not very fair.
  Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, my understanding is that that cut Social 
Security benefits for senior citizens by $24.8 billion. Not a single 
Republican voted for that either in the House or the Senate?
  Mr. MILLER of Florida. Absolutely. That tax increase in 1993 was a 
tax increase to balance the budget and to reduce spending. That thing, 
our deficit in this country is getting higher and higher every year. 
The solution to solving our deficit problem is cutting spending, not 
raising taxes.
  As Ronald Reagan used to say, it is not that we are taxed too little, 
we spend too much. Until we address the spending side of the equation 
we are not going to get this deficit under control, so raising taxes in 
1993 was a wasted exercise and it was very painful for our senior 
citizens as they are finding out this month of April when they pay 
their taxes for 1994.
  Another thing that is going to be really good for seniors, in 
addition to the repeal of that tax increase in 1993, the other is 
raising the earnings limit for senior citizens. This is a penalty on 
lower income seniors. If you make over $11,280 you get taxed at 33 
percent of your Social Security income.
  President Clinton campaigned on that issue back in 1992, and we do 
not even hear about it anymore. It is a regressive tax on working 
seniors. Wealthy seniors, they have $100,000 of income on interest and 
dividends and stock investments and such, they get to draw their Social 
Security, but a working senior citizen, once he makes over $11,280 has 
to pay a 33 percent tax. That is in effect what he is paying. That is 
not fair.
  This tax bill repeals that over the next 5 years. This tax relief 
bill is good for senior citizens, it is paid for by spending 
reductions, and that is the only way we are going to balance this 
budget, is when we go after spending reductions. It starts us on the 
glide 
[[Page H4154]] path to a balanced budget. Seniors know it is a moral 
issue to balance that budget, and we have got to start working on it 
sometime. Tomorrow is the day that we can cast our vote to move in 
balancing that budget.


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