[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 19, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H252]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF 105TH CONGRESS ARE MANY, BUT MUCH MORE REMAINS TO BE 
                                  DONE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Weller) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELLER. Mr. Speaker, it is good to be here today. As I look back 
over the last 2 years, I am so proud of the accomplishments of this 
Congress, proud of what we have achieved in just the last few short 
years, accomplishments that include balancing the budget for the first 
time in 28 years, cutting taxes for the middle class for the first time 
in 16 years, saving medicare and giving medicare another 10 years of a 
strong, good life; and also reforming welfare by emphasizing work and 
family and responsibility for the first time in over a generation.
  Now, this House of Representatives, even though we have accomplished 
quite a bit, accomplishments we are proud of, balancing the budget, 
cutting taxes for the middle class, reforming welfare and saving 
medicare, we face some big challenges ahead. Our tax burden is still 
too high. In fact, for the average American family the tax burden today 
totals almost 40 percent, if we add State and local as well as Federal 
taxes. We need to make sure that taxes are lower for working middle 
class families.
  We need to help our local schools and ensure that the dollars that we 
provided, because we have increased funding by 10 percent this last 
year at the Federal level for our local schools, we need to ensure 
those dollars actually reach the classroom.
  We need to increase and strengthen our Nation's defense. I think it 
is just wrong that 11,000 American military men and women today subsist 
on food stamps in order to make ends meet. That is just wrong. We need 
to make up and fix that and strengthen our national defense.
  We also need to save social security, an issue that is so important 
not just for today's seniors but for every working American.
  Tonight we are going to hear the President's State of the Union 
speech. It is important we be here to hear what the President has to 
say, and I hope tonight we hear from the President that he has a 
specific plan, a specific proposal to save social security.

                              {time}  1445

  For the last year and a half now, the President has talked about 
saving Social Security but he has yet to give us a plan, a proposal, 
specifics that we can work with him on to accomplish that goal. I hope 
tonight to hear some specifics.
  As a member of the Subcommittee on Social Security, I am anxious to 
learn the President's proposal, and I am wondering whether his solution 
will raise taxes on working Americans. Will it cut benefits for 
seniors? Will he give opportunity for working Americans, or will he 
just redistribute wealth? Those are important questions, and we are 
looking forward to hearing the President's proposal.
  I also hope to hear the President address an important issue, a 
fundamental question of tax fairness. I have often asked in this well 
here this question: Is it right, is it fair that 21 million married 
working couples pay on average $1,400 more in taxes today just because 
they are married, $1,400 more than an identical working couple living 
together outside of marriage? I think that is wrong, and I know the 
folks back in Chicago and the south suburbs that I have the privilege 
of representing also believe that the marriage tax penalty is wrong and 
unfair and we believe it should be eliminated.
  In the Chicago south suburbs, in a town like Joliet and the district 
that I have the privilege of representing, $1,400 is one year's tuition 
at our local community college, Joliet Junior College. It is 3 months 
of day-care at a local day-care center. It is just wrong that our tax 
code punishes marriage. We should make elimination of the marriage tax 
penalty a bipartisan priority.
  This past year the House of Representatives passed and sent to the 
Senate legislation that helped the process of saving social security 
and legislation that specifically eliminated the marriage tax penalty 
for a majority of those that suffer it. In fact, our legislation that 
we passed out of the House of Representatives last fall reserved $1.4 
trillion of the budget surplus, extra tax revenue that we are now 
collecting more than we are spending, but set aside $1.4 trillion to 
save social security, and the rest we use to help working families by 
lowering their taxes, including eliminating the marriage tax penalty 
for the majority of those who suffer it.
  My hope is that the President tonight will outline a plan which does 
save social security. It is my hope that the President will also come 
forward and embrace a bipartisan effort to eliminate the marriage tax 
penalty. We can get the job done, just as we have in the past.
  Over the last 2 years, we have balanced the budget for the first time 
in 28 years; we cut taxes for the middle class for the first time in 16 
years; we reformed welfare for the first time in a generation; and we 
extended the life of medicare by working together.
  It is my hope that by working together under the leadership of our 
new Speaker, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hastert), that we can 
save Social Security, that we can eliminate the marriage tax penalty, 
that we can strengthen our Nation's defenses and ensure that the 
dollars we provide for our local schools actually reach the classroom.




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