[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 159 (Wednesday, November 12, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2340]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         RELIEVE THE TAX BURDEN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BOB SCHAFFER

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 12, 1997

  Mr. BOB SCHAFFER of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share some 
thoughts about taxes. The tax burden on Americans is out of control and 
not being eased fast enough. As we debate the best way to give 
Americans much needed tax relief I urge my colleagues to consider the 
comments of a constituent of mine, Brandi Graham, of Fort Collins, CO.

       In 1914 the United States was preparing to enter into the 
     most mammoth war the world had ever seen. She was strapped 
     for the necessary cash to fund the unprecedented development, 
     training, and transport of troops and weaponry across the 
     globe. It was inarguably the greatest financial challenge the 
     growing nation had faced.
       Congress took to radical measures. Among others, it enacted 
     a temporary federal tax on income. It was a spirited debate 
     that produced the 16th Amendment.
       The first tax rate was a flat one percent of all income 
     earned. An amendment was offered that would have capped the 
     all-time federal tax rate at two percent. Unfortunately, the 
     amendment was defeated. Many of the legislators wondered if 
     allowing the federal government to tax individual income 
     would be the slippery slope toward a government that would 
     confiscate the earnings of its citizens. Tragically, their 
     fears were to become realized.
       In 1997, Americans worked through the month of May just to 
     pay the tax collector. Only after June, did the Feds actually 
     allow us to begin providing for our own families. In the 
     hands of congressmen, the flat, one percent tax rate has 
     become a cruel monstrosity bearing all the modern trappings 
     of ``progressive'' taxation, loopholes, and shelters.
       The tax code itself contains over 1,000 pages and requires 
     legions of accountants to comprehend. ``Progressivity'' has 
     caused citizens who work harder to find inexplicably that 
     they only have less take home pay because they have achieved 
     a higher tax bracket. Others discover that their savings are 
     taxed at higher rates, or that they pay more to the 
     government now simply because they decided to marry.
       The scramble to escape the clutches of the income tax has 
     approached the absurd. Billionaires exchange U.S. citizenship 
     for tax breaks and companies move their operations to 
     countries offering less confiscatory ways of raising national 
     revenue. Our system is a disaster beyond repair.
       So what would the authors of the 16th Amendment do if they 
     were in Washington today? Well assuming they could recover 
     from the shock of seeing the Frankenstein-like mutation of 
     their quaint little income tax plan, they would almost 
     certainly call for tax relief. They would urge the 
     elimination of the myriad of loopholes and write-offs. But 
     such a lesson might better persuade them that the original 
     dissenters were right: That any income tax allows for 
     government repression of its people. They might opt for the 
     old and proven way of funding the federal government.
       Today, seemingly all Americans agree that the tax code is 
     hideous except for those who make the laws. Politicians seem 
     to like the power confirmed by the prodigious code. They seem 
     to enjoy the contributions from interests seeking to tweak 
     the tax laws here and there for their selfish advantage.
       But the nation's true leaders are those who understand the 
     history of American taxation. They understand how hard 
     Americans work to pay their government's largess. They 
     realize that our nation once did well to rely on national 
     sales taxes (we called them tariffs then) to fund all 
     government operations. And our best leaders recognize today 
     that a nation which ventured beyond a national sales tax has 
     become perpetrator of a sick irony, embracing the very 
     precepts against which it once rebelled, denying the fruits 
     of real liberty with an arrogance of royalty and all the 
     while crushing its people under the weight of oppressive 
     taxation.

  Mr. Speaker, as we move forward in our quest to relieve the tax 
burden, let us keep these comments in mind. Taxpaying Americans 
desperately deserve to make their own decisions on how their hard-
earned money should be spent.

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