[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 128 (Tuesday, September 17, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H10497]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1930
OPPOSE THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR'S PROPOSAL TO TAX OUTDOOR-RELATED 
                                 ITEMS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Meyers of Kansas). Under a previous 
order of the House, the gentleman from California [Mr. Dreier] is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DREIER. Madam Speaker, I rise to inform my colleagues that this 
weekend I had the opportunity, as I suppose many have, of seeing a 
political advertisement on television; we are all being deluged with 
these ads that are coming on, and I saw, believe it or not, a Clinton-
Gore campaign ad. In this ad they described what Bob Dole and Jack Kemp 
have put forward as a plan to allow the American people to keep more of 
their own hard-earned money. As Bob Dole says so well, it is not ours; 
it is theirs. They describe in that ad that action as a risky tax 
scheme. Those three words are used to describe the plan to bring about 
a 15-percent across-the-board tax cut for working families in this 
country.
  Then, back from California and to Washington, to get this amazing 
report that has come forward. For starters we have seen the information 
that the Clinton proposed tax cut, actually over a 10-year period, is a 
tax increase of $64 billion, but, Madam Speaker, that is just the tip 
of the iceberg.
  The latest development came forward from the Secretary of the 
Interior, Secretary Babbitt, who has informed us that he now wants to 
implement his Teeming with Wildlife Project. Now what does the Teeming 
with Wildlife Project consist of? It consists of a tax increase, a tax 
increase of from one-quarter of 1 percent to 5 percent on outdoor-
related items.
  Now, when one thinks of outdoor related items, this is a very far-
reaching area. Some have mentioned bird seed as one of those items that 
would be taxed, and others have thought about the prospect of the 
taxation of backpacks, and I was thinking, as children have started 
school this month, of the increase in the tax for those children buying 
backpacks, and you think of the other things that relate to this: boots 
and parkas and all kinds of items, and this supposedly is going into a 
fund that is designed to fund education, recreation, and conservation 
projects.
  Now, this administration is supposedly talking about a tax cut when 
the Secretary of Interior is proposing what obviously would be a tax 
increase, which he claims would raise approximately $350 million, that 
tax on our people who are hoping to enjoy some sort of outdoor 
activity. It is, I believe, preposterous to have this kind of proposal 
come forward. As a Representative who comes to this institution from 
the western part of the United States, I can think of little more that 
would be punitive than those that want to enjoy the great outdoors, and 
at the rate we are going on this there might be a surcharge that 
Secretary Babbitt may want to impose for just enjoying the fresh air 
that we have out West.
  Madam Speaker, I believe that it is a very, very sad day when we have 
got these kinds of proposals coming forward, but tragically, Madam 
Speaker, they are indicative of the kinds of things that this 
administration has done with its massive increase on middle-class wage 
earners and that they propose to do in the future even though they 
called theirs a tax cut and they described a real tax cut, that 
proposed by the Dole-Demp ticket as nothing more than a risky tax 
scheme.
  Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join in opposition to this 
ludicrous proposal which has come forward from the Department of the 
Interior.

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