[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 62 (Tuesday, May 7, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H4437]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TIME TO CUT TAXES IN AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Hoke] is recognized during 
morning business for 3 minutes.
  Mr. HOKE. Mr. Speaker, today is tax freedom day and today we are 
setting a new record for tax freedom day. It is not a record that we 
can be very proud of, but it is a record that I think I ought to bring 
to your attention and to the attention of the American people, in any 
event, and that is that this is the latest in the year that tax freedom 
day has ever fallen.
  In other words, the day on which we celebrate the fact that we are no 
longer working for the government, but we are working for ourselves, 
our families, is today later than it has ever been in our history.
  Mr. Speaker, I think that that confirms what Americans already know 
in their gut, and that is that taxes are too high and the government 
costs too much.
  Consider the following: In 1950, the average-income family of four 
paid less than 5 percent of its total income in taxes and one wage 
earner could easily support the entire family on the average income in 
this country. But today, Mr. Speaker, that same average-income pays 
about 24 percent to the Federal Government alone, 38 percent when you 
add in State and local taxes, and that is the highest percentage in 
American peacetime history.
  It is no wonder that tax freedom day is falling on the latest day 
that it ever has in the history of our country. Part of that is the 
result of tax increases that were enacted in 1993, increases which, as 
you know, Mr. Speaker, I voted against.
  What is even more disturbing is that as a result of this, middle-
class incomes are being squeezed; not to support the family, but to 
support the government. The pressure to earn more leaves us with less 
time and less energy to spend with our children or to get involved with 
our churches or synagogues or to be involved with our communities. When 
that happens, Mr. Speaker, our entire Nation suffers and our children 
suffer.
  Mr. Speaker, the corrosive and damaging effect of taxation on 
America's working families must be corrected. One giant step in the 
right direction is a $500 per child tax credit, a measure that was 
passed by this Congress and vetoed by the President. With this credit, 
a family of four earning $30,000 would have its 1996 Federal income tax 
cut in half. The entire Federal tax burden of 4.7 million working 
American families at the lowest income levels would be eliminated 
completely.
  Mr. Speaker, I am supporting the repeal of the 1993 gas tax increase 
of 4.3 cents per gallon. Of all the forms of taxation, the gas tax is 
one of the most unfair because it falls disproportionately on those at 
the bottom of the economic ladder.
  There are those who have said that it is politically motivated to 
repeal the gas tax. I say if it is, so what? There is rarely a day that 
the sun rises that is not a good day to cut taxes in America.

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