[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 44 (Tuesday, April 15, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3225-S3226]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  SENATE RESOLUTION 74--RELATIVE TO BUDGET DEFICIT REDUCTION AND TAX 
                                 RELIEF

  Mr. DORGAN (for Mr. Daschle) submitted the following resolution; 
which was referred to the Committee on the Budget and the Committee on 
Governmental Affairs, jointly, pursuant to the order of August 4, 1977, 
as modified by the order of April 11, 1986, with instructions that if 
one committee reports, the other committee has 30 days to report or be 
discharged:

                               S. Res. 74

       Whereas the United States economy continues to expand at a 
     brisk pace after 6 consecutive years of economic growth;
       Whereas unemployment and inflation continue to remain at 
     the lowest combined rate in 30 years;
       Whereas median family income is experiencing its fastest 
     growth since the 1960s;
       Whereas taxes as a percentage of gross domestic product are 
     lower in the United States, at 31.7 percent, than in any of 
     the Group of Seven industrialized countries, the average for 
     which is 36.5 percent;
       Whereas according to the Congressional Budget Office, 
     Federal taxes as a share of national income are 19.4 percent, 
     the same level as in 1969, and are projected to fall to 18.8 
     percent in 2002, not including any tax cuts which Congress 
     may yet enact this year;
       Whereas according to the Congressional Budget Office, the 
     total Federal effective tax rate, including income, payroll, 
     and excise taxes, for a family making $40,000 per year 
     averages 19 percent, of which only 6 percent is attributable 
     to individual income taxes, the lowest of any of the major 
     industrialized countries;
       Whereas the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has 
     calculated that the typical American generates the income 
     necessary to pay his or her annual Federal personal income 
     tax by January 20th of each year;
       Whereas strong economic growth, low inflation and 
     unemployment, and declining tax burdens on typical American 
     families have been achieved at the same time that the Federal 
     budget deficit has been reduced by nearly two-thirds;
       Whereas every Republican Senator voted against the Omnibus 
     Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, which cut the deficit by 
     63 percent, lowered interest rates, stimulated job creation, 
     and boosted gains in personal income;
       Whereas the 1993 budget legislation cut taxes on 15,000,000 
     workers and their families (40,000,000 Americans) and made 90 
     percent of small businesses eligible for corporate tax 
     reductions;
       Whereas President Clinton has submitted to Congress a 
     budget proposal that would further reduce taxes on working 
     families, including tax credits and deductions designed to 
     make post-secondary education and training more affordable;
       Whereas the Congressional Budget Office has certified that 
     the President's budget proposal would eliminate the fiscal 
     deficit by 2002, achieving the first budgetary surplus in the 
     United States since 1969;
       Whereas the principal budget legislation offered in the 
     105th Congress by the Republican majority would make it more 
     difficult to balance the budget by extending $526,000,000,000 
     of tax cuts over the next 10 years, more than an estimated 
     three-quarters of which would benefit the best-off 20 percent 
     of taxpayers rather than middle class working families;
       Whereas as many Americans rush to submit their income tax 
     returns to the Internal Revenue Service by April 15, Congress 
     is poised to miss its own April 15 deadline to pass a budget 
     resolution because the Republican majority in the 105th 
     Congress has emphasized symbolic political gestures in 
     connection with the Federal budget rather than the bipartisan 
     construction of legislation to eliminate the deficit; and
       Whereas the continuing failure by the Republican majority 
     to advance a budget resolution has the effect of withholding 
     from middle-class Americans the tax cuts proposed for them by 
     the President, undermining progress toward a balanced budget, 
     and

[[Page S3226]]

     denying the economy the benefit of the lower long-term 
     interest rates that a balanced budget would promote: Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that the 
     Republican majority should take up without delay a budget 
     resolution that balances the budget by 2002, targets its tax-
     relief on working and middle class families to the same 
     degree as the President's budget proposal, and protects 
     important domestic priorities such as medicare, medicaid, 
     education, and the environment.

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