[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 91 (Wednesday, June 25, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H4608]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 THE REPUBLICAN TAX BILL BENEFITS SPECIAL INTERESTS AND THE WEALTHIEST 
                               AMERICANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Tiahrt). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from California [Mr. Fazio] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. FAZIO of California. Mr. Speaker, if the 1996 elections told this 
Congress anything, it was to work together in a bipartisan fashion. In 
my district in California and throughout the Nation Americans told us 
to put aside differences and provide a tax cut that makes sense.
  Unfortunately, the Republicans who crafted their tax bill turned a 
deaf ear to the American people, to the President, and certainly to 
those of us on this side of the aisle. Instead, they chose to listen to 
the special interests that had inordinate influence in the way the 
campaigns were conducted.
  Just look at their tax bill. The American people want education tax 
credits to make college affordable. Instead, what do they get? Not much 
for education, but large cuts in the capital gains tax for the 
wealthiest Americans, not just the farmers and small business people 
who build a business and deserve to sell it for retirement.
  Americans want affordable child care, but what do they get instead? A 
bill that denies the $500 per child tax credit to 15 million families 
who work hard to make ends meet. Americans want the middle class to get 
tax relief and corporations to pay their fair share. But what do they 
get instead, in this bill? A proposal to wipe out the alternative 
minimum tax, which would allow the largest corporations in America to 
not pay a dime in taxes.
  Remember, this debate is not about whether we should cut taxes, it is 
about who gets the benefits. When we act tomorrow on a tax bill, we 
will make a clear distinction between the two parties as to where our 
attention is focused. Who gets the benefits? On that there is a clear 
difference. The Democratic bill helps working families. The Republican 
bill, I regret, caters to the wealthy and the special interests.
  Mr. Speaker, even by Washington standards there is some 
extraordinarily creative accounting going on by Republicans as they try 
to cook the numbers to show who benefits from their tax cut proposal. 
Now for the first time, truly independent comparisons of the Republican 
and Democratic tax plans are in. Here is what the U.S. News and World 
Report had to say when they conducted an independent comparison of the 
Republican and Democratic tax plans.
  Calling the Republican calculations ``ridiculous,'' it pointed out 
that the Republican tax plan is so tilted to the rich that Steve Forbes 
will face a lower tax rate than his house servant. ``The GOP's tactical 
aim here,'' the magazine says, ``is to put middle class voters against 
the 'undeserving poor.' Well, there is, it seems, a dime's worth of 
difference between the political parties after all,'' concludes the 
U.S. news and World Report.
  For middle class working families, it is much more than a dime, it is 
the thousands of dollars in their pockets. The Democratic tax cut plan 
is the one that makes sense for America. It is fair, it promotes 
opportunity, and it rewards working families.
  When we look back at the history of the last 15 years and we see the 
stagnant wages that have affected people who make from $25,000 to 
$50,000 to $75,000 a year, and we have limited options in a restrained 
budget deal, we have to make sure that we focus the relief on the 
people who need it most. Many of these people are not part of the stock 
market boom. They are not in position to share in the growth of 
this economy. They need to be considered first and foremost when we try 
to sort out our priorities in dealing with this tax bill.

  Most economic analysts have indicated without political bias that 
fully 50 percent of the funds made available in the Republican tax 
proposal will go to the 5 percent at the very top of the income ladder. 
That does not seem to me to be in a fair and even an objective sense 
the right thing to do with limited resources available.
  We have, I think, reached the point where the two parties will put 
away the myth that some have perpetuated that there is not a dime's 
worth of difference between us. Tomorrow we will vote on a Democratic 
alternative and then on a Republican bill. I think Members will find 
that there is a difference, and that the Democrats, in supporting their 
reform proposal, are standing up for the people who need us the most, 
who do not have the resources to take the vacations and to pay for the 
high cost of private educations, the people who simply want to get 
their kids a higher education, and who want a little bit of time, maybe 
on a long weekend, to make the long work week pay.
  I certainly hope we will make the decision tomorrow that will be in 
their interests, and show once again, there is a dime's worth of 
difference, maybe thousands worth of difference between the two 
parties.




                          ____________________