[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 16 (Thursday, February 26, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H652]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      SPENDING THE BUDGET SURPLUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Thune) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. Speaker, this morning I would like to visit just a 
little bit about some of the discussions that I had with members of my 
district, which is the entire State of South Dakota; and I had the 
opportunity last week to travel the length and breadth of my great 
State and listen to what people were saying out there on a wide range 
of issues.
  Of course, I heard a lot about the situation in Iraq, about the need 
to get a transportation funding bill passed, which is something that I 
think that we really need to move along in this body because there are 
many States, like mine, who depend on that, and the construction season 
is upon us.
  But one of the other things we talked a lot about and I heard a lot 
about is the question today in Washington, which is not being lost on 
people out in my part of the country, as to the whole budget surplus 
issue and what might we do to make the best use of a potential budget 
surplus.
  Of course, like my constituents, I agree that the first thing we 
ought to do is to begin to retire and protect for the future, our 
children's future, and deal with the $5.5 trillion debt that we have 
racked up over the past many years. So that should be a priority and, 
in fact, at the same time we need to set aside money so that we can 
begin to replenish the trust funds that we continue to borrow from, 
including the Social Security Trust Fund.
  I am the cosponsor of a bill, which the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. 
Neumann) will be visiting about here a little later, that in fact would 
allocate a third to debt repayment, a third to trust funds, Social 
Security Trust Funds, and then the balance of the third to tax relief.
  It is my view that, as we look at the whole issue of whether or not 
we ought to use the budget surplus for tax relief, the only 
justification would be if it is an alternative to new Federal spending.
  We have listened with great interest to some of the proposals that 
the White House has rolled out that would create a new Washington 
bureaucracy and new Washington spending; and, frankly, I think as an 
alternative to that, we should look at what we can give to taxpayers, 
the people who are paying the freight in this country, those revenues 
back.
  So, in doing that, we have had a considerable discussion, I think, 
within our own ranks about what is the best method or way of returning 
dollars to taxpayers; and in the whole marketplace of taxpayer ideas I 
believe one stands out. So I have, along with the gentlewoman from 
Washington (Ms. Jennifer Dunn), cosponsored legislation which would 
deliver tax relief in a very broad-based way, which says that a 
taxpayer gets tax relief without having to behave a certain way or 
conducting themselves in a certain way; and then we will figure out a 
way, through the social engineering process, to micromanage their 
behavior and allow Washington to pick winners and losers.
  We say as a matter of policy that it ought to be our practice here in 
Washington to come up with policies that treat everybody equally, and 
this is certainly an approach that would do that.
  So the first principle should be that if we, in fact, have dollars 
available for tax relief in any budget that is put together here, that 
we ought to look at how we can return those to taxpayers in a way that 
is across-the-board and does not pick winners and losers from 
Washington.
  The second thing we should do is come up with a tax relief proposal 
that, in fact, further simplifies rather than complicates the Tax Code. 
Because every time that we come up with legislation in this body it 
always seems to make it more complicated for the people who have to pay 
the freight out there, for the people who have to comply with that Tax 
Code.
  So we have introduced legislation, two pieces of legislation, 
actually, the first of which would raise the personal exemption from 
the current $2,700 to $3,400, which would affect every taxpayer in this 
country.
  If an individual has dependents, they can claim that increased 
personal exemption and thereby lower their tax liabilities; and it 
delivers the greatest proportion of tax relief from the lower income 
levels up through the income scale.
  The second bill would drop 10 million people out of the 28 percent 
rate bracket back to the 15 percent rate bracket, which I think is 
significant. Because today we penalize people for working harder, 
producing more and earning more. Now we are saying that, instead of 
each additional dollar that an individual earns, 28 cents is going to 
be collected in taxes, that we want to move more people back into the 
lower 15 percent bracket. I think that is a significant step forward, 
one, towards simplification and, two, towards delivering tax relief in 
a way that is very broad-based.
  So as we have this debate in the Congress about the budget surplus, 
as we address the issues of putting a systematic plan in place which 
will, one, begin to pay down the debt; secondly, will replenish or 
restore the trust funds that we continually borrow from, particularly 
Social Security; that to the extent that we have additional dollars 
available, before we create new Washington bureaucracies and new 
Washington spending, that we ought to look at ways that we can give 
those dollars back to the taxpayers, the people whose money it is in 
the first place and who ought to have the first claim to additional 
budget revenues.
  In doing that, as we make that decision, I think it is critically 
important we do it in such a way that we do not, from Washington, 
determine who wins and who loses and say that if people behave in a 
certain way they will be rewarded, we in Washington, D.C., will reward 
them by giving them this particular tax break; that, in fact, we ought 
to look at how we can deliver tax relief in a broad-based way so that 
all Americans who pay taxes are able to benefit from a growing economy.
  That is the priority that I think we ought to place as we have this 
debate; and to the extent, again, that there are dollars available and 
as we talk about the whole issue of tax relief and what we might be 
able to do to give something back to the taxpayers of this country, 
that those ought to be the overriding principles; that, one, we make it 
broad based and that, two, we do it in such a way that it further 
simplifies rather than complicates the Tax Code in this country.
  So I look forward to being a part of that debate, and I would urge my 
colleagues on both sides of the aisle to take a look at the legislation 
that we have introduced. Because I think it is consistent with those 
objectives. It is consistent with providing real relief and real 
choices to hard-working men and women in America who are trying to 
decide how to pay for their children's education, how to pay for their 
mortgage and their housing payments, how to pay for car payments and 
the groceries and everything else.
  If we want to, in a very real and tangible way, empower them to make 
decisions about the needs that they have in their future and their 
children's future, this is a way we can do it.
  One of the bills I mentioned earlier would, in fact, lower taxes on 
29 million working Americans today to the tune of about $1,200 per 
filer. That is real relief, it is real choice, and it will help real 
hard-working Americans in this country that we look to day in and day 
out to continue to support this country and to build a better future 
for all our children and grandchildren.
  With that, I would encourage the Members of this body to take a hard 
look at our legislation, consider cosponsoring it and try to make it a 
part of the debate we are about to have in terms of budgetary 
priorities.




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