[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 87 (Thursday, June 13, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H6401-H6402]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  TIME TO TAKE BACK THE AMERICAN DREAM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas, Mr. Sam Johnson, is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, is your tax bill too high? Do 
you worry about paying your bills. Hardly a day goes by without a call 
or letter from a constituent or a friend telling me how they struggle 
from day to day to make ends meet and how they worry about their future 
and their children's future.
  It is wrong, simply wrong, that so many families are working harder 
and longer, but continue to have less and less to show for it.
  I have to wonder why more people are working two jobs and why more 
families are forced to have both parents work, yet everyone has less 
money in their pockets.
  I have the answer--it's the Washington tax trap. The longer and 
harder you work, the more taxes you pay. The more taxes you owe. The 
bottom line is that Washington ends up with more, and you end up with 
less.
  Think about what the tax trap has done to society, to families, and 
to working parents. When I was a child, the largest investment most 
families made was in their home. Guess what, now it's paying their tax 
bill.
  In 1950, taxes took just a fraction of our income. Today, almost half 
of what you earn goes to the Government. Half. That is more than a 
person spends on food, clothing, and shelter combined.
  The tax trap is punishing working parents who are trying to balance 
career and family, and the children who are in daycare because both 
parents have to work are feeling the pain of high taxes.

  In the America that I grew up in, if you worked hard and played by 
the rules, you still had enough money left over from your paycheck to 
put something away for the future, and enough for those little extras 
that made life special. That was the American dream.
  The American dream was also about making a better life for the next 
generation--so that children would have more opportunities, more 
choices, and be better off than their parents.
  But now, for the first time in our history, an entire generation of 
Americans is losing hope and confidence in the future.
  And all blame for this uncertain future lies right here in 
Washington. For decades, Washington, DC has told America that 
everything is OK--don't worry, Washington can solve all of your 
problems.
  But at the same time Washington has been spending our children's 
inheritance and creating a national debt that now undermines our 
future.
  For too long, Washington has increased the debt by spending more than

[[Page H6402]]

it takes in, to pay for a growing bureaucracy--a bureaucracy that 
includes 160 different job training programs, 240 education programs, 
300 economic development programs, and 500 urban aid programs.
  A bureaucracy that pays over 1,900 union employees at the Social 
Security Administration using money from the Social Security trust 
fund.
  How does Washington afford all this? By taking more of the money that 
you earn. Take Bill Clinton. He wasn't in office 100 days before 
attempting to raise taxes. By comparison, Republicans spent their first 
100 days trying to cut taxes. After all, it is your money.
  Three years ago, against unanimous Republican opposition, Bill 
Clinton, forgot that it was your money, and imposed the largest tax 
hike in American history.
  I want to know--what is so wrong about asking Washington to live 
within its means?
  What is so wrong about demanding that Washington not spend 
extravagantly at the expense of our children? Is it fair to punish 
working families who are trying to save for the future?
  It's time to end the tax trap and give the American family some well-
deserved tax relief.
  But, I don't want to stop there. Our entire tax system needs an 
overhaul. The current system is economically destructive, impossibly 
complex, overly intrusive, unprincipled, dishonest, unfair, and 
inefficient.
  We need to look toward the future and develop a tax system that will 
make that future a success. And I don't care if it is a flat tax, a 
sales tax, a round tax, or a square tax--I just want it to be based on 
the principles of freedom. That is, it must be fair and simple, reduce 
bureaucracy, encourage savings and investment, be efficient, drive the 
economy, create opportunity for all, and put more money in your pocket.
  Americans don't want, don't need, and don't deserve an intrusive IRS 
any longer.
  America was made great because we, as a Nation, strived hard, 
sacrificed often and worked together to be the best.
  And we will continue to be a great Nation if we embrace a vision that 
will abandon the failed systems of the past and be led by the 
opportunities of the future.
  With this vision we can enact policies that encourage economic 
growth, raise wages, promote savings, and return hope and optimism to 
every American.
  Unending dreams and limitless possibilities--that's what the American 
dream is all about. It's up to us to take it back. It is our destiny.

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