[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 123 (Tuesday, September 16, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H7353-H7354]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      SUNSETTING THE U.S. TAX CODE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New York [Mr. Paxon] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PAXON. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take the opportunity this 
evening to outline a measure I think, on a bipartisan basis, can say a 
lot about where this Congress believes the future of our country should 
be, about what our vision as a Congress is all about for the future of 
our country.
  Mr. Speaker, for decades, few Americans ever really believed in their 
hearts that this Congress could work together to balance our Nation's 
budget, yet it was in 1994 our Contract With America finally, and I 
think clearly, established that we could do it because we put a date 
certain on it. We said we are going to do this by 2002, let the debate 
begin on how we are going to accomplish the specifics of balancing this 
Nation's budget, which in July of this year we finally have done.
  In so doing, by establishing that date of 2002, we really captured 
the attention and the support and the enthusiasm of the American 
people, and it overrode a lot of obstacles, frankly obstacles at the 
other end of Pennsylvania Avenue and some right here in this Chamber. I 
believe that by initiating that balanced budget debate in 1994, with 
our Contract With America, we defined the playing field and we won an 
important legislative victory for the American people.
  Now, similarly, for years we have talked about abolishing the Tax 
Code and replacing it with something different, with either a flat rate 
income tax or a national sales tax or some other alternative. Every day 
we wait, that 5.5 million word ``Tax Code'' that is administered by 
110,000 IRS employees defines just about everything we do as citizens. 
It limits our economic freedom, it discriminates against children, 
families, and entrepreneurs. It encourages hundreds of billions of 
dollars in the underground economy or in tax avoidance and, most 
importantly, I believe the complexity of the Tax Code, in its 
unfairness, turns off many millions of Americans to the government that 
administers and creates this program.
  I do believe that it is time to apply the same defining principles 
that we did on balancing the budget; establishing a date certain and 
then letting the debate begin, that same defining approach to the issue 
of changing our Tax Code.
  My colleagues, I believe this fall we should put on the President's 
desk a bill repealing the entire Federal Tax Code, and today I 
submitted legislation that would do just that. My bill will effectively 
sunset the Federal Tax Code at midnight on December 31, the year 2000. 
It eliminates all elements of the Tax Code except those dealing with 
Medicare and Social Security.
  Now, if this Congress has the courage and the commitment to see this 
through, think of what it means. Three short years from now Americans 
everywhere will celebrate New Year's Eve by wishing good riddance to 
5.5 million words of Federal bureaucratic gobbledegook along with the 
110,000 bureaucrats who enforce all this with a guilty until proven 
innocent sledgehammer.
  Now, I think my colleagues might agree that nothing gets Washington 
off its duff like a deadline and, frankly, this bill would impose one 
heck of a deadline. That is why I am calling my legislation No Taxation 
Without Reformation. I am pleased that already colleagues here in 
Congress have come forward to support this, and organizations like the 
NFIB, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, have decided 
to make the sunsetting of our Federal Tax Code and the beginning of 
this great national debate on what would replace it a reality.

                              {time}  2230

  I think if we have the courage and commitment as a Congress to start 
the national debate on this issue, it will mean first it will involve 
every American in helping us figure out what the ultimate solution, the 
replacement of the current tax code and its complexity, is all about.
  Second, it will help change specifically the system we have in front 
of us.
  And, third, by replacing the Tax Code with an alternative, a flatter, 
fairer income tax system, other national sales

[[Page H7354]]

tax, or something like the Cato Institute has proposed today, the max 
tax, any one of these alternatives or others that may come forward, we 
can and will restore people's faith in this Congress and in this 
Government, that it has the best interest of this country at heart and 
offers the opportunity for great hope and optimism for this Nation as 
we enter the next millennium.
  I hope that Members of Congress will join with me in this important 
crusade that we have begun today in the House of Representatives.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California [Ms. Millender-McDonald] is recognized for 
5 minutes.

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