[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 28 (Thursday, March 6, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H784]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               TAX REFORM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaHood). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Kansas [Mr. Ryun] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. RYUN. Mr. Speaker, the Federal Government is taking too much of 
the American taxpayer's money. As the representative from the Second 
District of Kansas, I have been elected to be a custodian of their 
money and I am here to make a report that their taxes are too high.
  Right now Americans, and Kansans in particular, pay more in taxes 
than they do on three essential things: food, shelter, and clothing. 
All of those things combined, they pay more taxes. They have to work 
until May 7 before they can realize even one penny of their hard-earned 
money. That means that January, February, March, April, and the first 7 
days of May, they have to work to support the Federal Government before 
they can realize even one penny of their hard-earned money.
  In 1992, families were promised a tax cut, only to have that promise 
broken and to see the largest tax increase in American history. I along 
with others have personally felt this tax increase. As a small 
independent businessman, there were times as I finished collecting and 
putting together the payroll that I would come up and I would say to my 
family, I would show them in fact what I earned, say, 10 years before 
and what I earned last year and I would show them that the difference 
was taxation. It is too large, it is too much, and we need to make a 
change.
  Some people do not understand that, though. They think that the 
Government is entitled to every penny that they earn. They need to 
realize and here is an opportunity to realize that it is their hard-
earned money, it is not the Federal Government's money.
  Recently I was in Pittsburg, KS, seeing some of my constituents, and 
as I was leaving, traveling to another southeast Kansas city, I was 
stopped on the highway by a construction worker as I was waiting for 
construction to be completed. The young man that was holding the sign 
came back to me, and as we talked at the window I began enlisting him 
hopefully in support of my campaign to elect me to the Second District 
of Kansas. I handed him one of my fliers and he responded by saying, 
``I'm not involved in the process, I don't vote.'' And so as we 
continued to talk, he began explaining to me that he did not want to be 
a construction worker the rest of his life but that he would like to be 
an underwater welder like his uncle and earn lots of money. I then 
reached over to the side of my car where my wife normally sat and gave 
him a voter registration, and I explained to him that when he started 
earning more money and started paying taxes like the rest of us, he 
would want to be involved in this process and have more say-so as to 
how his taxes were being spent.
  Specifically, I think we need to help Kansas families, Kansas working 
families, and there are four areas. One of them is in the area of the 
marriage penalty. We need to eliminate that. Another area is in terms 
of capital gains. We need to reduce capital gains. By reducing capital 
gains, we will free up more money, we will provide for better jobs and 
we will provide more opportunities for hard-working Kansas family 
members. We need to reward Kansas families. The $500 per child tax 
credit would be an opportunity to do that. Finally, we need to 
eliminate the estate, or I would like to say the death tax. When you 
have been taxed all of your life, there is nothing worse than one more 
insult from the Federal Government.
  I intend, Mr. Speaker, to work hard with other freshmen, my freshman 
colleagues and other Members from both sides of the aisle who are 
willing to reduce the level of taxation on families. We need to restore 
back to the American public the opportunity to see more of their hard-
earned and realized dollars.

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