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


                              {time}  1815
                 ELIMINATION OF ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM TAX

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bilbray). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from New York [Mr. Schumer] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. Speaker, we are going to be voting on this tax bill 
and there are some parts of it that I think are good and that I will 
support. Certainly the parts on the senior citizen taxation is 
something I have always supported, but there are lots of things in the 
tax bill that I think would make the American people's hair stand on 
edge if they knew. These are not the things the Republicans are getting 
up and talking about, but they are things that are things for their 
buddies. The worst of them all is the elimination of alternative 
minimum tax.
  Let me tell you why I feel strongly about this. In 1986 Congressman 
Marty Russo--who is no longer in Congress--and I proposed an 
alternative minimum tax. Until that point, some of the biggest 
corporations in America were paying no taxes at all. Imagine how the 
average working stiff felt. He or she worked hard, paid 5,000, 6,000, 
7,000 and 8,000 bucks in taxes and the companies in America like 
Mobile, like Ford, like Champion International, like UniCal, like 
Shell, like Scott Paper, like Phillips Petroleum paid not a smaller 
percentage of taxes but less dollars. They paid no taxes at all because 
they had the ability to hire the accountants and the lawyers and pay 
none.
  Mr. Speaker, we stopped that. We did not say they had to pay more 
taxes then the average American but we said they ought to pay a minimum 
of 25 percent, no matter how many lawyers or accountants or loopholes 
they were able to employ.
  Now, quietly, almost whispered, the Republicans have decided in this 
tax bill to repeal that and so the good old days, at least they think 
they are the good old days, when major corporations paid no taxes at 
all will return. It is a disgrace.
  Mr. Speaker, here at the same time we are telling students they ought 
to pay more for their loans. We are telling Medicare recipients that 
they ought to get less back and pay more. We are telling kids on school 
lunches there may not be enough money for them. We are telling Champion 
and Chrysler and Dow and Ford and Mobil and Scott and Shell and Texaco, 
some of the biggest companies in America, ``You can go back to the good 
old days when you paid no taxes.''
  There has been a coalition, the AMT Working Group, that are companies 
that are lobbying to eliminate this alternative minimum tax provision. 
We can see why. Almost every one of them in the 3-year period 1982 to 
1985 paid not a little bit of taxes, but no taxes for some point in 
time, for 1 of those years, 2 of those years, up to 4 of those years. 
It is 4 years.
  So my colleagues, let us not pass a tax bill that benefits the 
wealthiest corporations. Let us not pass a tax bill that gives such a 
high proportion of the money to corporations and then cut money for the 
students on loans, cut money for the kids on lunches.
  What kind of contrast is that? Who is the Republican party 
representing? This was not in the contract. Every one of you who signed 
that contract talked about a $500 credit for children. Mobil does not 
have any children, yet they are getting a tax reduction. Texas 
Utilities does not have any children.
  So this is the wave of the future, I am afraid to say, my colleagues. 
Once the contract is over, the contract some of us did not like parts 
of it, some parts I supported, but once the contract was a restraining 
thing for our colleagues on the other side, business and the wealthiest 
of businesses are going to run rampant.
  Now, I like these businesses, frankly. I think they are good for 
America. I think they employ people, but I like the average American a 
little bit more. If the average American has to pay taxes, why should 
not our biggest companies?
  That is our message. It is very simple. You do not see them talking 
about that in lights, but you can be sure in the corporate boardrooms 
tonight and tomorrow night and after the tax bill passes, they are 
going to be congratulating each other, having put one over on the 
American people and repealing the Schumer-Russo alternative minimum 
tax.


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