[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 160 (Tuesday, October 17, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15189-S15190]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                TAX CUTS

  Mr. GRAMS. Mr. President, as an author of the $500 per child tax 
credit, I want to join other Republicans this morning and am very 
pleased to express my support for the Senate Finance Committee's tax-
cut package. I want to congratulate the chairman of the Finance 
Committee, Senator Roth, for keeping his pledge to fight for the entire 
$245 billion tax-cut package and also for making the $500 per child tax 
credit the centerpiece of the committee's plan.
  This plan represents the true change that the American voters called 
for last November. Contrary to the longstanding belief inside the 
Washington beltway, tax dollars do not belong to the Government; they 
belong to the taxpayers. Cutting taxes is not some kind of reward to 
the American people; it is rightfully their money to keep.
  Now, when I introduced the $500 per child tax credit as part of my 
Family First legislation in 1993, I had high expectations, but I never 
thought we would make so much progress so quickly. But then, again, I 
never counted on a revolution in 1994.
  As we Americans know, revolutions do occur over tax policy. Just 
think of the Boston Tea Party, which paved the way toward the American 
Revolution, which was staged over a tax of just one-half of 1 percent. 
Now, that does not seem like much when it is compared to the 
President's $255 billion tax hike that we were fighting just 2 years 
ago, the largest tax increase in American history.
  Then came November 1994, a second American revolution, which turned 
the Washington elite on their heads. With it, along with the dramatic 
change demanded by the voters, comes the opportunity to disprove the 
liberals' well-worn philosophy that your salary somehow belongs to the 
Government. With just one election the American people stopped this 
tax-and-spend trend in its tracks, and it reminded Washington to get 
off our backs and to get out of our back pockets.
  By passing the $500 per child tax credit, the Senate will give nearly 
$500 million a year in tax relief to families in Minnesota every year. 
It will be $25 billion in tax relief for Americans across this country 
every year. And the benefits of this tax credit will be directed where 
it is needed most, and that is to the middle-class Minnesotans and all 
Americans who work hard, pay their bills, and finance the Federal 
Government with their tax dollars.
  But most important, we will keep the promises we made to the American 
people. Minnesotans elected me to the 

[[Page S 15190]]
Senate to balance the budget, reduce the size of Government, and to 
allow average working-class people to keep more of their hard-earned 
tax dollars. And the passage of the $500 per child tax credit is the 
best message that we can send that our promises will be kept.
  While we still may need to work out all the details of this plan, we 
should all agree on the overall thrust of empowering people, not 
Government; rewarding taxpayers, not the bureaucrats; and take money 
out of Washington and leave it in the hands of the people who have 
earned it.
  We cannot back down now. We must continue to push ahead in spite of 
the criticism that is aimed our way by the defenders of the status quo. 
They will try to chip away at this tax cut in an attempt to maintain 
the grip that they have held on your salary for the past 40 years. So I 
encourage my colleagues to resist these attacks, to be proud of our 
efforts to cut taxes, because it is the right thing to do.
  Mr. President, I again commend Chairman Roth and the majority leader 
for producing this tax package. I look forward to supporting a balanced 
budget and a $245 billion tax-cut plan here on the Senate floor. We can 
do both. We must. We will cut taxes and we will balance the budget this 
year.
  Thank you very much. I yield the floor.
  Mr. KYL addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.

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