[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 91 (Wednesday, June 25, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H4613]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             TAX RELIEF NOW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Neumann] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. NEUMANN. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to call attention to how far 
this Congress has come. In order to truly understand how much this 
Nation has changed over the last couple of years, since 1995, when 
there was a change of who was running this place out here, I think it 
is important we go back to the pre-1995 years and talk about what it 
was that made the American people so cynical, almost to a point that 
when somebody out of Washington says ``here's what we're going to do,'' 
nobody believes him. I thought I would start with the Gramm-Rudman-
Hollings Act of 1985.
  This was back in the middle 1980's, when Congress started promising 
the American people a balanced budget. I was not here. I watched this 
thing very closely from the outside. I was a taxpayer building a 
business from the ground up at that point in time, working hard every 
day, and I watched this promise. I watched them promise us that they 
were going to balance the budget. Their promise was along this blue 
line in this chart. What they actually did is they followed the red 
line in this chart.
  As my colleagues can see, their promises did not hold up. As a matter 
of fact, instead of getting to a balanced budget as originally promised 
in 1991, the deficits exploded. What did they do? They did the 
Washington thing, and many people in America, myself included, got even 
more upset with them. They put a new Gramm-Rudman-Hollings bill out. 
Since they could not meet the first one, they made up a new one. The 
second one had a blue line again. The blue line shows their promised 
route to a balanced budget, and the red line shows again what actually 
happened. The deficit exploded. Why did that happen? They could not 
curtail the growth of Government spending in Washington. They just 
plain could not resist reaching into your pocket, taking more money out 
and spending more money out here in Washington. There was a fundamental 
belief out here that the people in Washington knew better how to spend 
the American people's money than they knew how to spend it themselves.
  This is kind of what was going on before 1995. We had the promise in 
1985, the promise again in 1987, several more promises along the way. 
We got to 1993, and in 1993 they said we really do have to get this 
deficit under control, we know we have made these promises repeatedly 
so what we are going to do, they decided in 1993, this was the past 
again, they said we are going to raise taxes on the American people to 
try and get us closer to a balanced budget. It was the closest vote 
they have ever seen in this House. In both the House of Representatives 
and in the Senate, that tax increase that raised the gasoline tax and 
the Social Security tax, that 1993 tax increase, the biggest tax 
increase in American history, passed each House by one single, solitary 
vote. The American people rejected that, because in 1994, they said, 
``We're sick of the broken promises and we're tired of the tax 
increases. Washington should not be reaching into our pocket and taking 
more money out to try and get to a balanced budget.''
  In 1995, they elected a new group to Congress. They elected the 
Republicans to take over. The Republicans got here and they made a 
promise to the American people, too. We laid out a 7-year plan to get 
to a balanced budget. We are now in the third year of that 7-year plan, 
and this may very well be the best kept secret in Washington. We are in 
the third year of our 7-year plan to balance the budget and we are not 
only on track, but ahead of schedule.
  In fiscal year 1996, this red column shows what was promised to the 
American people. This is the Republican promise of 1995 to the American 
people. We not only met that target, but the deficit was actually 
lower. As we started down our track to a balanced budget, the first 
year was in, and we hit the target.
  This is what was promised to the American people in the second year, 
this red column. The blue column shows where we actually were. We have 
got 2 years under our belt now not only on track, but ahead of 
schedule.
  Today what we are passing is the third year in this plan, and the 
third year in this plan is once again on track and ahead of schedule. 
We are in the third year of a 7-year plan to balance the Federal budget 
and, very different than the previous Congress, very, very different, 
we are not only on track but ahead of schedule.
  How did all this happen? How did all of this come about? It came 
about because instead of reaching into the pockets of the American 
people and taking more money out through tax increases, instead of 
doing this, the new group that came here in 1995 said it would be a 
whole lot better if we curtailed the growth of Government spending. If 
we just controlled the Government spending habits out here in 
Washington, we would not need to raise taxes to be on track and ahead 
of schedule in balancing the budget, and that is what we did. Two years 
into this program, we have reduced the growth of Government spending by 
over 40 percent. We have literally got our arms around and curtailed 
the growth of Government spending to a point where today we passed a 
bill that is going to balance the budget at least by 2002, and we are 
tomorrow going to pass a bill that allows tax cuts for the American 
people.
  I hear a lot of rhetoric about these tax cuts, but I know the middle-
income folks understand what these tax cuts are. In a family of five, 
the people we see in church every Sunday, those folks know what the tax 
cuts are. They know if they have got three kids at home, one headed off 
to college, that they stand to receive $1,000 for the two kids, $500 
for each one of them still home, and $1,500 for the one that is going 
off to college. They do not understand all this class warfare rhetoric, 
but they sure understand what the tax cuts are. It is a great time for 
America when we have not only balanced the budget but provided 
additional tax relief for the American people.

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