[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 93 (Friday, June 27, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S6782]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TAX RELIEF FOR WORKING FAMILIES

 Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, today the Senate completed action 
on S. 949, the Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1997, legislation 
implementing the tax relief provisions from the historic bipartisan 
balanced budget agreement. I support this legislation because it does 
provide real tax relief and adheres to the balanced budget agreement, 
which we worked hard to achieve. American families need this tax relief 
and they need our continued commitment to a balanced budget.
  I have listened to the concerns of many of my colleagues regarding 
this legislation and the benefits for working families. There is no 
disputing the fact that this legislation does benefit upper income 
families, but it also benefits working families and the tax cuts are 
not at the expense of vital, investment programs. I have heard a great 
deal about the inequities in this legislation and I supported the 
Daschle substitute which would have eliminated many of these 
inequities. But, I do think it is unfair to make the criticism without 
examining the entire balanced budget agreement and the tax relief 
adopted in 1993 for struggling, working families. The bottom line is 
that working families will benefit from estate tax relief, capital 
gains tax reductions, education investment tax credits, a per child tax 
credit and expanded IRAs.
  Beyond taxes, my colleagues must remember that the balanced budget 
agreement was not only about tax relief, but it was also about helping 
working families by allocating additional resources for health care, 
education, environmental protection, and nutritional assistance. It 
also protected Social Security and Medicare for our Nation's senior 
citizens. Before weighing any inequities, let's make sure we examine 
the complete picture.
  The balanced budget agreement, which this body adopted on June 5, 
1997, calls for a significant investment in education. The agreement 
assumes additional Federal funding for important programs aimed at 
improving access to quality education for our children. I can assure my 
colleagues that working families will benefit from improved educational 
opportunities for their children. Quality education is one of the major 
priorities for many of the constituents that I talk to in Washington 
State. And again, there are education tax incentives which will help 
middle class working families who are facing escalating tuition and 
higher education costs. The Hope tax credits and the permanent 
extension of section 127 employer-provided educational assistance tax 
exemption are the kind of tax relief that my constituents have 
endorsed.
  There is no doubt that this legislation can and should be perfected. 
We can work to target more relief to the middle class and I will be 
seeking these changes in conference. I am also hopeful we guarantee 
that these tax cuts do not result in an explosion in the deficit. I 
will not sit by and watch our deficit run out of control. When I first 
came to the Senate in 1993, the deficit was close to $300 billion 
annually. For 1997, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that 
our deficit could be as low as $70 billion. This was not done without 
some pain and sacrifice. It is imperative that we stay the course and 
maintain a balanced budget well after 2002.
  Now that the Senate has completed action on part II of the budget 
agreement, I sincerely hope that every effort will be made to correct 
the problems with S. 947, the spending reconciliation legislation. The 
Medicare provisions added by the Senate Finance Committee go well 
beyond protecting Medicare and will jeopardize access to health care 
for millions of low income senior citizens. I supported a balanced 
budget agreement that included constraints on spending and tax relief. 
It is imperative that we enact both parts of the bi-partisan balanced 
budget agreement, and I will be making every effort to improve S. 947 
in conference and I will continue to oppose efforts that seek to 
undermine the historic, bipartisan balanced budget agreement.

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