[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 106 (Thursday, July 24, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H5668]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               TAX RELIEF FOR FAMILIES WHO TRULY NEED IT

  (Mr. GEPHARDT asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks and include extraneous 
material.)
  Mr. GEPHARDT. Mr. Speaker, I would like to introduce to all of my 
colleagues the Boyer family of Ste. Genevieve, MO, in my district. No 
strangers to hard work and sacrifice, the Boyers are struggling to 
provide their children with a quality education.
  Cecil is a janitor in the County Sheriff's Department; Mary, a 
biology and algebra teacher for the past 23 years at Valle Catholic 
High School, has started working a second job as an attendant at a 
local gas station.
  Now not only are the Boyers taking out student loans, but their 
daughter, Cathy, a junior at Central Missouri State and their son, 
Kevin, a Jefferson Community College student are also working part-time 
jobs. Combined, the Boyer family, four people working five jobs, make 
about $50,000 a year, middle class by anybody's definition of the word.
  Under the Democratic tax plan, the Boyers would receive a $1,584 tax 
cut; under the Republican vision of tax relief the Boyers would receive 
only $528 in tax cuts.
  Republicans have taken weeks to reach agreement on a unified tax cut 
proposal, but for most middle-income families like the Boyers it was 
not worth waiting for.
  We hope the President can persuade Republicans to move toward the 
Democratic tax cut and direct relief into the pockets of the families 
who truly need it.

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