[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 119 (Tuesday, September 14, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H8157]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TAXES TODAY ARE SIMPLY TOO HIGH

  (Mr. BALLENGER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BALLENGER. Mr. Speaker, taxes today are simply too high. The 
average American pays $10,300 every year in taxes to all levels of 
government. That is more than the cost of food, shelter, and clothing 
combined. Yet President Clinton continues to reject tax relief for 
hard-working Americans.
  If one is married and paying more in taxes than one should because of 
the IRS marriage penalty, the President says, tough. If one works hard 
all of their life to build a business so that one can pass it on to 
their kids only to fall victim to the death tax, he says, that is too 
bad.
  Along with across-the-board tax cuts for all taxpayers, the 
Republican Congress wants to provide badly needed relief from the 
marriage penalty and do away with the death tax. But the President says 
he will veto that.
  Rather than allow taxpayers to keep more of what they earn, he wants 
them to give more to Washington bureaucrats. By vowing to veto tax 
cuts, President Clinton is no longer rejecting badly needed tax relief, 
he is working his back on the hard-working American families.

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