[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 135 (Thursday, October 1, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H9191]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              ON TAX CUTS

  (Mr. KINGSTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, Americans pay on the average about 40 
percent of their total household income in taxes. In 1996, recognizing 
this, the Republican leadership pushed for a middle class tax cut, 
despite the President's and most of the Democrats' objections that 
people who want to pay less taxes are just selfish.
  Well, we are back at it again, another middle class tax cut. It has 
already passed the House. Marriage tax relief, ending the marriage tax 
penalty, relief for farmers and tax relief for the death tax penalty.
  And what are the Democrats and the President saying? They are saying 
this is going to adversely affect Social Security. Well, what does the 
Director of the Congressional Budget Office say? That the tax plan has 
no effect on Social Security. This is a Democrat chart so the word 
``effect'' is misspelled. But then, again, we knew Democrats would be 
reading this and we wanted to share the information with them so we had 
to put it in their language.
  But the fact is, the point is right. The tax cut does not affect 
Social Security. Just how much is this? In the total budget scheme, Mr. 
Speaker, of $9.6 trillion, it is barely a slither of a slither of $80 
billion in middle class tax relief over a 5-year period of time.

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