[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 76 (Wednesday, May 29, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H5631]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              THE TAX TRAP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Arizona [Mr. Hayworth] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HAYWORTH. Mr. Speaker, this evening we have heard my colleagues 
talk about the tax trap, the tax trap which has enmeshed so many 
Americans who fall victim to this simple observation which history and 
simple mathematics would bear out: The harder you work and the more you 
succeed, the more Washington and the Washington bureaucracy takes from 
you.
  I realize this is deadly serious business, Mr. Speaker, because we 
are talking about real people with real concerns and the genuine future 
of this Nation at stake. And not to make light of this, but to bear it 
out in one of its forms, I am reminded of the Walt Disney production, 
``The Parent Trap,'' because the tax trap for our citizens is all too 
often a parent trap. This is what I mean.
  So often now, across the width and breadth of this country parents, 
both parents, in a household are working oft-times not because of 
choice but because of trying to move their family beyond this tax trap. 
Quite often a spouse goes to work simply to try and satisfy the tax 
bite; simply to try to lift the family out of this hole created by more 
and more taxation, and the incessant need of this bureaucracy to ask 
for more and more money from average Americans.
  My colleague from Pennsylvania articulated it, talked about the 
largest tax increase in American history given to this Nation by people 
who used to sit in the majority in this very room along with a 
President who said on the campaign trail that middle-class America 
needed tax relief, and yet turned around not 100 days into his term and 
gave us the largest tax increase in American history.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, we have heard a lot of playground taunts, we have 
heard a lot of name calling. The word extreme has been bandied about, 
and dare I say in extreme fashion. Well, Mr. Speaker, it is fair to ask 
this question. For those who would throw out the word extreme with such 
ease, what is so wrong about asking Washington to live within its 
means? What is so wrong about demanding that Washington not spend so 
extravagantly as to sacrifice our children's future? And is it fair, 
Mr. Speaker, to punish working families who are playing by the rules 
and trying to provide for their family's future?
  The good news is that this new majority in Congress, working with a 
lot of folks, quite candidly, on the other side of the aisle who are 
willing to own up to these problems, trying to move past partisan 
bickering, together we have fashioned a constructive way to deal with 
these problems, to balance our Federal budget, to roll back the tax 
bite and try to eliminate the tax trap; to try to save health care and 
Medicare for future generations without bankrupting the generations who 
must pay for it.
  That is the mission we face, and, again, we would ask the President 
of the United States to join with us in a constructive program for the 
future.
  It is a tragedy, Mr. Speaker, that our President and his term of 
office thus far has been defined not by accomplishments. Indeed, now, 
Mr. Speaker, the question is not what can the President accomplish, 
but, said, Mr. Speaker, the question has become, especially in the wake 
of recent revelations, how can this President explain it away this 
time? What rhetorical device, what language can he use, what verbal 
contortions can be brought to bear to avoid the problem and escape the 
responsibility?
  Mr. Speaker, the American people deserve us to act responsibly, to 
save this Nation for today's seniors and for our children.

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