[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 47 (Monday, April 15, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H3240]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    CONGRESS' SINGLE LARGEST MISTAKE

  (Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, in 1909, the Congress made the 
single largest mistake in the history of this country. It passed the 
16th amendment to the Constitution, which allowed Congress to tax 
income. That single act succeeded in creating a tax system that is 
economically destructive, impossibly complex, overly intrusive, 
unprincipled, dishonest, unfair, and inefficient.
  This country deserves a change. We need a tax system based on a 
vision of America that places the individual, not the government, at 
the center of society.

                              {time}  1415

  We deserve a system that will increase economic growth, create jobs, 
expand opportunities, and allow people to achieve the American dream. 
We need a system that promotes freedom.
  Two things need to be done. One, we need to get this two-thirds vote 
to increase taxes; second, we must repeal the 16th amendment to the 
Constitution. Americans do not want, do not need, and do not deserve 
the IRS.

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