[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 79 (Wednesday, June 17, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H4640]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


    MAJORITY OF AMERICANS WILL NOT BENEFIT FROM TAX REFORM PROPOSAL

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, today we have the stealth plan to fix the 
system of taxation in America, to repeal the entire Tax Code. Well, not 
the entire Tax Code, not the most regressive part of the Tax Code.
  Seventy-two percent of the American people pay more in FICA taxes 
than they do income taxes to the Federal Government. Guess what? That 
72 percent of the American people are left out of this phony election 
year proposal. But what is included, what we are going to repeal is the 
mortgage home deduction. That is the one, the one shelter, that middle 
income, working Americans have available to them is a deduction for the 
interest on their home mortgage. That is repealed. That is gone.
  We are also going to repeal that which provides for employer-provided 
health care and charitable deductions. Guess what? This stealth 
proposal is a dagger aimed right at the heart of working Americans 
under the guise of helping them. So once again, the Republicans can 
service the special interests that are doing so well under the current 
code, but want to do better under a new one.

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