[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 116 (Thursday, September 9, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H8002]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 COULD IT BE THE REAL REASON REPUBLICANS ARE DROPPING THE TAX BILL IS 
              THE AMERICAN PEOPLE HAVE ALREADY VETOED IT?

  (Mr. DOGGETT asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DOGGETT. Madam Speaker, surely one of the most bizarre 
announcements of this do-little Congress was the declaration yesterday 
by the Republican leadership that there will be no tax bill this year, 
because there simply will not be enough time to consider the matter 
after the President vetoes the Republican tax giveaway. This is the 
same Republican leadership, of course, that has delayed now over a 
month in sending the tax bill to the President so that it can be 
vetoed, as they knew he would do all along.
  Could it be that the real reason that they are dropping the tax bill 
is that the American people have already vetoed it?
  They have vetoed the idea of borrowing from a still rising national 
debt to give more to those who have a PAC and a lobbyist here in 
Washington for the hundreds of billions of dollars of special interest 
tax provisions in this measure. They have vetoed the idea of taking 
from Social Security and Medicare to give a tax break to those at the 
top when most Americans will get pennies out of this tax proposal.
  I believe the American people have vetoed this bad idea, and perhaps 
that is the real reason that even the Republican leadership, that has 
done so little this year, is giving up on the tax cut.

                          ____________________