[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 64 (Thursday, May 15, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H2684-H2685]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE OVERTAXED

  (Mr. CHABOT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CHABOT. Mr. Speaker, let us face it, the American people are just 
overtaxed. Why? Well, too much of their hard-earned money comes here to 
Washington and it gets wasted in many, many ways.
  Examples. We have a program called the Market Access Program, where 
we actually take the taxpayers' money and pay for corporations to 
advertise their products overseas. We still subsidize far too many farm 
products, cotton, peanuts, sugar, and the list goes on and on. We still 
pay farmers in this country not to grow crops. Maybe that made some 
sense back during the Depression, it makes no sense nowadays.
  To pay for all these wasteful programs, our taxes have gone up. 
During my lifetime they have gone, for example, from 5 percent that 
people send to Washington to now 25 percent. If we add State and local 
taxes, it is about 40 percent the average American family pays out in 
taxes. So if we work a 5-day week, Monday and Tuesday we are working 
for the Government and only

[[Page H2685]]

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are we working for ourselves and our 
own family.
  We are talking about a historic budget agreement between the Congress 
and the President. Let us make sure a substantial part of that budget 
agreement has to do with tax relief. Let us get the Government off the 
backs of the American taxpayers. Let us cut taxes and do it now.

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