[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 138 (Tuesday, October 6, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H9650]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                $80 BILLION TAX CUT SHOULD NOT BE VETOED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Fossella) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FOSSELLA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak for the millions of 
American taxpayers, the millions of American taxpayers who believe that 
they are overtaxed, millions of American taxpayers who go to work every 
single day, like so many that I represent on Staten Island and in 
Brooklyn who feel that they send too much of their hard-earned money to 
Washington and do not see enough of it back home where it belongs.
  A couple of weeks ago, this House narrowly passed a tax relief bill 
to the tune of $80 billion for the American people, specifically 
targeted to help senior citizens, married couples, and small business 
owners and farmers.
  The reality is, as we stand here today, it stands under the threat of 
a White House veto. In other words, what we have been fighting for for 
the last year to bring much needed tax relief to the American people, 
with the stroke of a pen, will be rejected by the White House.
  I think I speak for most of the American people who believe that they 
pay too much in taxes. When we talk about pittance and sending some of 
that money back home to Staten Island or Brooklyn or anywhere else 
across this country, I do not think these folks are asking too much.
  We are talking about taking money out of a surplus. Well, let us be 
real. Where does this surplus come from? It does not fall out of the 
trees here in Washington. It is generated from the hard-working 
Americans who go to work every single day, some of whom work 6 and 7 
days a week, some of whom are struggling to pay their mortgage or make 
their car payments or pay a college tuition.
  I think the notion comes down to a very fundamental difference 
between those who want to stand in the way of growth and stand in the 
way of opportunity and stand in the way of allowing the Americans the 
freedom to spend their money as they see fit and compare and contrast 
that to those who just want to keep that tax burden as high as possible 
to keep the Federal Government growing larger and larger and to allow 
the bureaucrats and the politicians in Washington to make the choices 
for the American people that the American people should be making for 
themselves and their family.
  The battle is very clear. The battle is over the size of government. 
Advocates of the bigger government here want the tax burden to remain 
high so they can use these excess revenues to create new programs and 
expand existing ones. That is the facts. It is the conventional common 
sense of the ordinary American that seems to get lost in the cloud of 
rhetoric here in Washington.
  I look forward every time I can split this town and go back home to 
Staten Island where I live and where my family is, where the real 
people are, those people who get up at sunup and work till sometimes 8 
or 9 o'clock at night, some of whom work Monday and Tuesday of a 5-day 
week just to send their money here to Washington. I ask them, do they 
think they get the money that they deserve that they pay in taxes?
  All we are asking for is an $80 billion tax cut, something that they 
earned for themselves. We believe, at least I believe, that we need a 
pro growth tax policy, one that will cut marginal income rates to 
provide incentives to the American people to go out and work and to get 
to keep more of their hard-earned money, not this typical defending big 
government, defending big bureaucracy, defending everything that 
Washington stands for that is bad, as far as I am concerned, and 
instead sending the money back to create opportunities back in Staten 
Island and Brooklyn.
  If the American people back home want that money to save, if they 
want it to invest, if they want it to build their local churches or 
civic organizations and keep that money close to home, then I say let 
us draw the line in the sand.
  Let us send that money back home, stand with the Republican majority 
here that really had to fight tooth and nail when we listen to that 
debate to pass that tax bill, and send the message to the White House 
once and for all that the American people deserve to keep their hard-
earned money.
  Let us look forward next year, this is a small step, next year come 
back here and try to reduce the tax burden even more, create a policy 
where we can reduce those marginal rates again to provide incentives to 
people to work and to keep more of that money. That is a very simple 
message, a very simple message that somehow gets lost every time we 
come around here in the Beltway.
  But I think that when I go back home and I talk to the small business 
owner who is looking for 100 percent deductibility for his health 
insurance where now it is 40 percent, if I talk to that married couple 
who is paying a penalty, a penalty for being married, it is ridiculous. 
Mr. Speaker, let us bring much needed tax relief to the American 
people.




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