[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 85 (Wednesday, June 18, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H3870]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           INTRODUCING LEGISLATION TO GUARANTEE TAX FAIRNESS

  (Mr. HINCHEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HINCHEY. Mr. Speaker, the hallmark of any tax system has to be 
fairness and justice. No system of taxation, particularly in a republic 
like ours, can be supported if it is not fair and just. What the 
majority here in this House is trying to do is to perpetrate on the 
people of this country a system of taxation which is neither fair nor 
just.
  The best example of that in the recent bill that they have proposed 
is a proposal to eliminate the alternative minimum tax. The alternative 
minimum tax was established back in 1986, when it was discovered that 
major American corporations with huge profits were paying absolutely no 
taxes to the Federal Government.
  On one occasion, for example, a major American corporation, in spite 
of the fact that it had $5.5 billion in profits, paid no taxes to the 
Federal Government whatsoever, while the average taxpayer in my State, 
for example, was paying $34,000 of their hard-earned money in taxes 
that year. Obviously if we reduce the taxes for major corporations, 
others are going to have to make up the difference. That difference 
will have to be made up by the American working people.
  I am going to introduce a resolution supporting the alternative 
minimum tax and an amendment to the bill when it comes on this floor to 
make sure that profitable corporations pay their share of taxes.

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