[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 98 (Friday, July 11, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H5134]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               CLINTON CONSIDERS TEACHERS AMONG THE RICH

  (Mr. HEFLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Speaker, the Clinton White House and people like the 
gentleman who just spoke have criticized Congress' tax cut plans as 
unfair because they say that the richest 20 percent of the country will 
get most of the tax relief. Most Americans think of the rich as people 
like Bill Gates and Michael Jordan. In Clinton's plan it only takes a 
family income of $56,000 per year to be in the top 20 percent of the 
earners, or the rich.
  According to the 1996 census, millions of working families who would 
never consider themselves rich by any measure are in Clinton's top 20 
percent: 2.4 million elementary and school teachers, over half; 1.7 
million union members, one out of every 10; 8.1 million Federal, State 
and local government workers; 120,000 editors and reporters, almost 
half; 4.2 million mechanics, repairmen, construction workers have 
family incomes considered rich by the standards of the gentleman that 
just spoke here.
  These are precisely the people who deserve the bulk of the tax cuts. 
Congress wants to make sure they receive those cuts. It is time for 
Bill Clinton and his cohorts in the Congress to stop misleading the 
American people.

                          ____________________