[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 44 (Tuesday, April 15, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H1461]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         IN SUPPORT OF THE TWO-THIRDS TAX LIMITATION AMENDMENT

  (Mr. BARTON of Texas asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I hold in my right hand a copy of 
the Constitution of the United States of America. When this document 
was ratified by the Original Thirteen Colonies in 1787, in article I, 
section 9, I want to read the following sentence: No capitation, or 
other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or 
enumeration herein before directed to be taken.
  What that meant was there could be no income tax in the original 
Constitution, but on February 3, 1913, the 16th amendment was passed to 
the Constitution that overrode that sentence that I just read. The 16th 
amendment says: The Congress shall have the power to lay and collect 
taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment 
among the several States.
  We need to pass the two-thirds tax limitation constitutional 
amendment on the floor of the House of Representatives this afternoon 
to put back into the Constitution not an absolute prohibition against 
leveling income taxes but at least a supermajority requirement that 
will take two-thirds of the House and the Senate before we raise taxes.

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