[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 85 (Wednesday, June 18, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H3868]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TAX RELIEF FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS

  (Mr. HEFLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Speaker, has anyone noticed that any tax cut proposal 
made by Republicans is reflexively labeled tax cuts for the wealthy by 
the liberal Democrats. Given that the tax cuts in the balanced budget 
amendment are targeted at middle class taxpayers, I interpret this 
strange reaction in one of two ways: It means that either they think 
middle class taxpayers are rich, which must be news to a lot of middle 
class people who live very modestly, or it means that they really do 
not like the idea of tax cuts at all, because it means that big 
government programs cannot expand as fast as they want.
  Of course, there could be other interpretations. It could simply 
reflect the confusion so common among liberal Democrats about whether 
tax money already belongs to the taxpayers who earned it, or whether 
the tax money actually belongs to the politicians who then spend it in 
Washington in ways designated to get themselves reelected. It could 
also be plain old fashioned envy, a favorite tool of liberals. Whatever 
it is, such nonsense should be ignored and the middle class should get 
tax relief.

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