[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 157 (Wednesday, October 11, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H9864-H9865]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          FIRE PREVENTION WEEK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from West Virginia [Mr. Wise] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WISE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today at the Nation celebrates Fire 
Prevention Week to speak about a fire cause that affects every American 
no matter where they live. I am referring to the act of arson.
  The United States Fire Administration's Annual Report to Congress 
states that in 1994 arson continued to be the second leading cause of 
fire deaths in residences and the leading cause of dollar loss from 
fire. Each year 1,000 people die from an estimated 332,000 arson fires. 
Direct property loss is in excess of $1.6 billion. Since 1984 arson 
fire deaths have increased 33 percent.
  Unfortunately, West Virginians were not spared from the scourge of 
arson. That same report indicated that 18.4 percent of all reported 
fires in West Virginia were caused by arson, with losses exceeding $1.6 
million.
  As a member of the Congressional Fire Services Caucus, I was proud to 
support the Arson Prevention Act of 1994 which passed the 103d Congress 
and was signed into law by President Clinton. This legislation enable 
States to conduct meaningful programs to combat arson.
  During Fire Prevention Week we must pause to consider how all of us, 
not just the fire service, can work toward making all Americans safer 
from the ravages of fire.
  The American people should be enraged about the tragic cost to lives 
and property from this preventable cause of fire.
  I am pleased to report, Mr. Speaker, that the International 
Association of Arson Investigators is working tirelessly to combat this 
crime in all its forms. I am especially proud of the West Virginian 
Chapter of the International Association of Arson Investigators. This 
dedicated group provides training to police, fire, and insurance 
investigators on how to better detect arson in our state. They also 
work to educate our citizens about how arson hurts everyone.
  Let us then pause, Mr. Speaker, during Fire Prevention Week to honor 
all those men and women dedicated to fighting the war against arson and 
urge all Americans to support their efforts.


                           taxes and medicare

  Mr. Speaker, turning to another topic, I would like to talk a little 
bit about taxes and the sleeper issue that is coming up in the next 
couple of weeks.
  What I want to do is to talk about we hear a lot about Medicare and 
Medicaid, but it is taxes that are also very important for West 
Virginians, where we are finding out more and more as we analyze the 
budget proposals that will be coming in the next couple of weeks in the 
Republican leadership's proposals. We are seeing there is a tax 
increase for thousands of working West Virginia families, middle-income 
and lower-income working families.
  First, Mr. Speaker, it may be difficult for you to see this chart, 
but if you look, what this says is who benefits from the GOP tax cut. 
That is my first chart. If you can see the red, the red says that 
people, and this is people earning over $100,000 or more, this is the 
percentage that they get from the tax cut where they get over 52 
percent of the tax cut that goes to those earning over $100,000 or 
more. The little blue sliver are those people earning $30,000 or less. 
Those people, incidentally, get 3 percent of the benefits of the tax 
package. So these are the folks over $100,000 a year, they get 52 
percent of the total package; $30,000 or below, they get 3 percent.
  Now let us flip it and see what happens to West Virginia taxpayers. 
Here we have the people making the blue portion, the people making 
$30,000 or less comprise 68 percent of our State's population. So this 
blue portion, which is almost 70 percent of our State's population, 
gets less, gets about 3 percent of the total tax package. This little 
red sliver, and I know you probably cannot see it because it is almost 
infinitesimal, that is the 1.5 percent in our State that earn over 
$100,000 a year. Mr. Speaker, they are going to get 52 percent of the 
tax package. It is totally skewed, as you can see.
  Mr. Speaker, I would also point out that because of the rollbacks in 
the earned income tax credit that goes to working families under 
$24,000 a year, that in West Virginia someone making under $10,000 a 
year, basically working at minimum wage, will actually see a 

[[Page H 9865]]
$9 increase in their taxes while someone earning over $100,000 a year 
will see a $2,400 tax cut. That certainly seems to me not to be 
equitable, not to reward work, not to try and get money to the middle 
income that I think everybody agrees has been the group most strapped.
  I hope these changes certainly can be addressed.

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