[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 35 (Wednesday, March 25, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H1454]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 TAX RELIEF FOR MIDDLE-CLASS AMERICANS

  (Mr. TIAHRT asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. TIAHRT. Mr. Speaker, the Republican Party stands for tax relief 
for working Americans. We know middle-class families are getting killed 
by paying 50 percent of their income in direct and indirect tax, and 
what they get in return for those taxes suggests that the Government 
mocks their hard work that went into the earning of their wages.
  But the possibility of enacting middle-class tax relief this year 
appears to be quite remote. The reason is because the President and the 
liberals here in the House refuse to cut spending. They refuse the 
means by which tax cuts are put on the table.
  The President and his liberal allies in Congress do not believe that 
any more can be cut from the $1.7 trillion budget, for they believe all 
those wonderful, big government programs are more important than giving 
middle-class families some real tax relief; and they do not want to 
offend their special interests that keep them in power.
  Mr. Speaker, I think it is time to put the average middle-class 
American before the special interests. Let us rid the Government of 
more wasteful programs and fight for tax relief for middle-class 
Americans.

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