[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 28 (Tuesday, February 23, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H689-H690]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           WHOSE MONEY IS IT?

  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, I rise for a few minutes to talk about some 
issues I heard about back home during the Presidents' Day recess.
  You know, Mr. Speaker, I have the privilege of representing a very, 
very diverse district. I represent part of the City of Chicago, the 
south suburbs in Cook and Will Counties, farm communities and a lot of 
bedroom communities. When a district is so diverse, you really want to 
listen and learn the concerns of the people you have the privilege of 
representing. And I find that even though our district is so diverse, 
city, suburbs and country, that there is a pretty clear message, and 
that is that the folks back home want us in this Congress to work 
together to solve the challenges that we face. And I am pretty proud 
that this Congress over the last 4 years has responded by doing some 
things we were told we could not do: balancing the budget for the first 
time in 28 years, cutting taxes for the middle class for the first time 
in 16 years, reforming welfare for the first time in a generation and 
taming the tax collector by reforming the IRS. And those are real 
accomplishments, real accomplishments that I believe we should all be 
proud of.
  And when I was back home over the last week listening to the folks 
back home, I asked, what do you want us to do next? And they tell me 
that they want good schools, they tell me that they want low taxes, 
they tell me that they want a secure retirement, and I am pleased to 
say that that is the majority's agenda here in this House of 
Representatives, to help our schools and put more dollars in the 
classroom and to give control of our schools back to parents and 
teachers and locally elected school boards. It is our agenda to lower 
the tax burden on the middle class because we believe that you can 
spend your hard-earned dollars better back home than we can for you 
here in Washington, and we also want to ensure a secure retirement by 
saving Social Security and rewarding those who save for their own 
retirement.
  But today we face an even bigger challenge probably as part of this 
whole process as we work on our agenda as both a challenge and it is an 
opportunity, and that is the balanced budget bonus, the overpayment, 
the extra tax revenue that came from 4 years of hard work of balancing 
the budget. Expect that this overpayment of tax revenues is going to 
total $2.7 trillion over the next 10 years.
  That is a lot of money, and it is extra money, and the debate is what 
are we going to do with it? Do we spend it? It is burning a hole in 
Congress' pocket. Or do we give it back to the folks back home?
  Now the President said that we should take 62 percent of this surplus 
revenue and use it to save Social Security, and then he wants to spend 
the rest on new government programs. A lot of us here in the Congress 
say that we should agree with the President on that 62 percent and, 
rather than creating new government programs after we save social 
security, that we should give the rest back and pay down the national 
debt thereby lowering the tax burden.
  And that is really a fundamental question: Whose money is it to start 
with?

[[Page H690]]

                              {time}  1730

  Whose money is it to start with? We know that. It is the taxpayers. 
But who can better spend it? Folks back home. That is you. Or is it, of 
course, Washington? Can Washington spend it better than we can?
  Now, we the Republican majority believe that you can spend it better 
than we can for you and that is really why this is such an important 
debate this year, because we have to look at the issue of taxes in 
general.
  Some say why is a tax cut so important? Well, if you look at how it 
affects families back in Illinois, the tax burden today is at its 
highest level ever in peacetime. In fact, 40 percent of the average 
Illinois family's income now goes to local, State and Federal 
government in taxes. The tax-take totals 21 percent of our Gross 
Domestic Product, and since 1992 the total collection of income taxes 
from individuals has gone up 63 percent. Clearly, the tax burden is too 
high.
  The question then is, how can we lower the tax burden for the middle 
class? How can we help middle class families? I believe that we should 
focus on tax simplification, because is not it time that we bring 
fairness to the Tax Code? Is not it time to end discrimination in the 
Tax Code? As we set priorities this year, to help the middle class by 
simplifying the Tax Code, I believe that we should simplify the Tax 
Code by ending discrimination against 21 million married working 
couples who suffer the marriage tax penalty, and really it is a very 
fundamental question.
  Is it right, is it fair, that under our Tax Code, that 21 million 
married working couples pay on average $1,400 more in higher taxes just 
because they are married?
  Now in the south suburbs of Chicago, $1,400 is one year's tuition at 
Joliet College. It is 3 months of day care at a local day care center. 
It is 6 months worth of car payments for some of those machinists that 
visited us today.
  I am pleased to announce that 230 Members have joined as cosponsors 
of the Marriage Tax Elimination Act. Clearly, there is bipartisan 
support for simplifying the Tax Code and bringing fairness to the Tax 
Code by eliminating the extra tax on married working couples.
  Let us work together. Let us bring fairness. Let us simplify the Tax 
Code and eliminate the marriage tax penalty this year.

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