[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 54 (Wednesday, April 30, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H2012]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               REDUCTION OF TOP RATE ON CAPITAL GAINS TAX

  (Mr. DREIER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, as I listen to my colleagues on both sides 
of the aisle talk about very important programs designed to help those 
who are truly in need, I am going to mention something that actually 
could, I believe, do probably more than any of those things that have 
been talked about to help those who are truly in need; and, yes, it is 
a reduction of the top rate on the capital gains tax.
  Now we had a study done not too long ago by the Institute on Policy 
Innovation, which found that if we could reduce that top rate, as H.R. 
14 does, our bill that we introduced on the opening day, to 14 percent, 
we could, in fact, increase the average take-home pay for a family by 
$1,500 a year.
  Now so often people have in the past talked about this capital gains 
tax rate reduction as being nothing but a tax cut for the rich. But 
people are finally realizing that if we could allow those literally 
millions of American families who own mutual funds or other appreciated 
assets to see a reduction on that top rate, it would, in fact, improve 
the standard of living for all Americans.

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