[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 91 (Wednesday, June 25, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H4609]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page H4609]]
                        THE REPUBLICAN TAX BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Kingston] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I am certainly glad tonight to have an 
opportunity to discuss this tax bill with my Democrat colleagues and 
Republican colleagues. Tomorrow we are going to vote on the first tax 
relief bill in 16 years. It is a bill that gives capital gains tax 
relief and a $500 per child tax credit, it gives death tax relief, a 
college scholarship or deduction, the HOPE scholarship, and the 
American dream IRA. Make no mistake, this tax bill is not perfect by 
any stretch of the imagination, but it is the first tax bill that we 
have had in over 16 years.
  We are hearing a lot from the Democrats that this tax bill, or it is 
kind of interesting to hear it coming from some of the speakers, that 
for the first time they are saying, it is not a question of tax relief.
  I do not understand that. They have had this Chamber for 40 years. 
They have never passed tax relief until Ronald Reagan shoved it on 
them. But they have been passing lots of tax increases, and what they 
are saying is, well, we want tax relief, but not this. Does that sound 
familiar?
  If you are a watcher of politics, you will know this is the same 
thing they have always said on the budget: Of course we want to balance 
the budget, but not here, not now, not this bill. It is the same old 
thing.
  Let us talk, Mr. Speaker, let us talk about who benefits from this, 
because we keep hearing that this is a tax cut for the wealthy. If 
Members will look at this chart, I invite my colleagues to see, this is 
a chart with information by the nonpartisan Joint Economic Committee. 
It shows that the tax relief, the bulk of it, will go, and this is 
about 76 percent, to families with a combined household income of 
$20,000 to $75,000. Over here is the $75,000 to $100,000. This area 
right here on this chart is 91 percent of the tax relief.
  Now, will somebody who is wealthy get a little bit of tax relief? 
Yes, they will. I know that the Democrats hate folks who have 
succeeded. They just seem to love class warfare and they are not about 
to do it. So to keep their continuation of the debate on this rich, 
evil American, and it is interesting, sometime when you are working, 
maybe go out there and look at the person who is creating the jobs, and 
ask yourself, is this a mean, evil person?
  But to show the low degree to which they will stoop in order to prove 
their point, what they have done is they have taken a household that 
makes $49,000 a year. Then they charge you rent on your own house that 
you may or may not be paying a mortgage on, but let us just say it is a 
$100,000 house. What the Democrats do is say that is worth $1,000 a 
month in rent. To your $49,000 they are going to add $12,000 in rent. 
If you have a parking space at your job they are going to charge you 
$30 or $40 a month in rent, and they are saying that is what it is 
worth, and they are going to add that to your income, and also gains on 
your pension plan, anything that is a benefit.
  So when you are through with the Democratic tricks, the $49,000 
income is worth $93,000. So if you are represented by a Democrat, I 
would invite you to write him or her and ask him, how did you come up 
with these numbers? And then ask yourself if you would really want 
somebody who understands math like that to represent you, and maybe you 
may want to think about qualifying for the job yourself.
  This is the reality of taxes, which Democrats hate. That is that 95 
percent of the taxes in America are paid by the people in the top 50 
percent bracket. Why do we give middle class tax relief? Because those 
are the folks who are paying the taxes. What the Democrats want to do, 
if you are middle class, they want to take your $500 per child tax 
credit that you as a taxpayer are paying and give it to somebody who 
does not pay taxes. Think about this. A single woman with a 14-year-old 
and a 16-year-old, under the Republican plan, will get $1,000 in tax 
relief. Under the Democrat plan she will get zero. Yes, that is 
compassion, to the middle class.
  Where will that money go? It will go to somebody who is not paying 
taxes. Does that make sense? Is that compassion? Is that what Members 
want? Just because this woman, this single mother of two is out there 
working and just because her children are over 12 years old, she is not 
going to get any tax relief, but the person who is not paying taxes 
will get that $500 per child tax relief.
  In my district there was a young man, he is 30 years old. He was 
bragging to the newspaper the other day that he has fathered 30 kids. 
He has 30 children. I want to say this to him, more power to you as 
long as you pay for them. But the fact is he is not paying for them, 
you are paying for them. Under the Democrat plan the tax relief will go 
to him as a non-taxpayer.
  I am telling the Members, it is a fraud. Vote for middle class tax 
relief. Vote for the Republican plan, and do not listen to the phony 
baloney that the Democrats are pushing.

                          ____________________