[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 86 (Thursday, June 19, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H4075-H4076]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TAX RELIEF FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore [Mr. Cooksey]. Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Souder] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to speak on the same tune, but with 
slightly different words.
  I think that we have been talking a lot about the importance of this 
to middle class families. We have been talking about the importance of 
this to what would be seen as kind of main line American families. But 
I have been very impressed that our Speaker, the gentleman from Georgia 
[Newt Gingrich], has joined with President Clinton to talk some about 
the problems of race in America and extending opportunity to all 
American citizens.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield a minute, I 
think it is real important what he just said and I want to slow up on 
it a minute. The gentleman just mentioned that the President and the 
Speaker are working together.
  One of the things that is important for us to realize is that the 
Republican majority in the House and Senate was reelected but, at the 
same time, the same American voters reelected President Clinton. What 
they want is results. People are independent ticket splitting and they 
want results.
  It is interesting that on issue after issue the gentleman is saying, 
race, taxes, balancing the budget, the Republican leadership is working 
with the President, and yet many detractors on the Democrat side, 
particularly in the House, cannot stand this; that President Clinton is 
working with Republicans.
  I think the President has heard the message of the American people: 
They want a balanced budget, they want a smaller government, they want 
tax relief. And the President realizes that, unfortunately, his party 
is not going to deliver that, so if he wants to move in the direction 
of the vision of the American people, he has to work with Republicans 
rather than Democrats.
  I think it is interesting the gentleman made this point one more time 
on race.
  Mr. SOUDER. Well, I wanted to put into the Record a number of the 
things the Speaker said last night, because many of these overlap with 
what we are talking about here on taxes and providing economic 
opportunity.
  He raised some questions that go beyond this: making sure civil 
rights are enforced, an importance on welfare reform, in reducing 
crime, as we work on

[[Page H4076]]

the drug issue. But listen to a number of these categories, and then I 
will relate it to our package and why this is not a tax break for the 
rich and the type of tired rhetoric we will hear but, in actuality, an 
opportunity for all Americans.
  He talked about learning, creating better opportunities for all 
children to learn by breaking the stranglehold of the teachers' unions 
and giving urban parents a financial opportunity to choose public, 
private or parochial schools, as millions of black Americans are 
reaching out to the private Christian schools and building their 
communities and wanting the choices that other Americans have. That is 
part of the point of the $500 personal credit, so people can choose the 
school that is best for their children.
  He says on small business that we should have the goal of tripling 
the number of minority-owned small businesses by eliminating the 
barriers and providing the tax opportunities.
  He talks about 100 renewal communities, and low income scholarships, 
savings accounts, brownfields cleanup. He talks about economic growth 
and expanding economic opportunities.
  Well, listen to some of the different things in this package. In 
addition to the tax credit for children, we have a deduction for 
undergraduate tuition, scholarship tax credits, credit up to 50 percent 
of $3,000 out-of-pocket tuition expenses phased out at $40,000 to 
$50,000 singles, $80,000 to $100,000 joint; expanded IRAs that people 
can not only take out for education but for first time home buying. We 
have education investment savings opportunities.
  And then the businesses that most need the capital gains changes are 
businesses that are just starting. Many of these minority businesses 
that start up in an inner city actually increase the property values 
all around them. Then, when they go to move to the next block, they get 
punished because they have raised the value of their lands and the area 
around them. That is the point of capital gains, not to benefit the 
most wealthy but to get those starting out to move to the next size, to 
the next size, to the next size.
  The inheritance tax reform that will eventually, over a number of 
years, get up to $1 million. When we have minority businesses and 
people just starting, many Americans have made it, but millions of 
Americans have not made it. They want their kids to have the 
opportunities that my great grandpa worked to get to my grandpa, that 
gave to my dad and his brother so that I could have the opportunity. 
That is not done by taking away the family farm, by taking away the 
small businesses; it is by giving enough exemption that we can pass it 
through and build it into a little bit.
  A person starts with a dry cleaner, builds it a little bit bigger, a 
little bit bigger. A retail operation may move to another business. My 
great grandfather set up my grandfather as a harness maker. He moved 
and bought the building next to him and the building next to him, and 
we now have a building we lease out to 60 different antique dealers. It 
is something that came bit by bit. That is what the capital gains 
means. That is how economic growth occurs, that and inheritance tax.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, and the 
fact is he has already shown through his leadership that when we talk 
about innovation and entrepreneurship, that that is what America is all 
about. And under this new tax proposal, new businesses will be 
emerging.
  We will have people who have a great idea getting a chance through 
capital gains tax reduction, through a balanced budget, a real 
opportunity in the Federal Government to make sure their money goes far 
and their family has a chance to have a piece of the rock.

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