[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 13 (Monday, February 14, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H362-H363]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS ON TAXES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Colorado (Mr. McInnis) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McINNIS. Mr. Speaker, as you know, last week was a very important 
week for the United States Congress and for the American people. We had 
some good news, and we had some bad news. I am talking about 
legislation.
  The good news we had last week is that the Republican-led bill, 
despite all of the debate against the bill by the Democrats, the 
Republican-led bill to do away with the marriage tax penalty in this 
country passed this House; and I am proud to say 40 or 45 Democrats had 
enough guts to stand up and vote for it, because they knew it was the 
right thing to do.
  How in this country, where we try and encourage families, where we 
try and push the divorce rate down, where we try to have people have 
their children in a marriage, how can a country as great as the United 
States of America penalize couples for being married? That is exactly 
what happened.
  Well, that is water under the bridge. It happened. But now it is 
incumbent upon us, its United States Congress, to do something about 
it, to eliminate it. I could not believe that the Democrats opposed 
that tax cut. It is unfair. They said we could not afford it. Well, 
number one, we cannot afford to do away with it. But whether you can 
afford it or not, is it right? Is it a tax that was intended to do 
that? No, it is not a right tax. That argument on its face did not hold 
water. That was the good news.
  Now, the bad news. We got the Clinton budget last week, the 
President's budget, the Democrat budget. You know what it had in there? 
Of course, the Democrats have been making a big issue lately about 
saying we cannot afford to cut taxes, do not cut taxes, despite the 
fact we have record surpluses in this country, despite the fact that if 
we do not cut taxes, that means that money continues to come out of the 
workers of this country's pockets and comes to a bureaucracy in 
Washington,

[[Page H363]]

D.C., is filtered down, everybody gets their hands on it, and then some 
of it eventually goes back to the States. That did not matter much.
  What they did with their budget last week is they proposed a tax 
increase, a tax increase in the death tax.
  Now, you know that the marriage penalty tax is unfair, and in this 
country, after you pay taxes all your life, at the end of it, if you 
fall in certain income categories, they tax you again, a death tax on 
property that has already been taxed. It is, without exception, the 
most unfair, unfounded tax in our system, the death tax.
  We have on the Republican side proposed and proposed and negotiated 
and negotiated to do away with that death tax. It is not fair; it 
should not be there. It is a tax on property that has already been 
taxed. But the Democrats, who some of them, by the way, I think agree 
with our position, but the leadership certainly and the President's 
budget said, Hey, let's not only not get rid of the death tax, let's do 
not do that, let's actually increase the death tax.
  There is over a $9 billion increase, hidden in that presidential 
budget. You have got to look very carefully. Fortunately, we have 
excellent staff on the Committee on Ways and Means. I am on the 
Committee on Ways and Means. We look at that budget line by line, item 
by item. We were surprised. What are they attempting to do, the 
Democrats, with this budget? Why do they want to raise the death tax?
  I urge my colleagues on the Democratic side, join us on the 
Republican side, join us in eliminating the death tax in this country. 
It is not fair. You are hurting a lot of small family farms and ranches 
throughout this country. You are hurting a lot of small businesses. You 
are taking away the incentive for people, or one of the incentives, for 
people to work hard.
  You have already got your taxes, Democrats, throughout their working 
life. Why, Democrats, do you want to tax them upon their death? For 
gosh sakes, do not try and raise the taxes this year. At least maintain 
the status quo, as wrong as it is. At least you ought to try and 
maintain the status quo, if you are not going to help the Republicans 
eliminate it. But do not go out and raise the death tax on the American 
people by $9 billion.
  That is the good news and the bad news. The good news is we passed 
out of this House, and we had some Democrats join us on our Republican 
bill, to do away with the marriage tax penalty. The bad news is that 
the Democratic budget, the administration budget, proposes to increase 
taxes on the death tax.
  So any of you who have ever had any discussion about the estate 
taxes, you had better call your accountant tomorrow, because there is a 
$9 billion increase in the President's budget coming right through that 
tunnel.

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