Congressional Record, Volume 147 Issue 105 (Wednesday, July 25, 2001)

[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 105 (Wednesday, July 25, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8147-S8150]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

TAX REBATES

Mrs. HUTCHISON. Madam President, I rise today to talk about the tax
rebate checks that started going in the mail this very week. In fact, I
have already talked to someone who has received a tax rebate. It made
me feel so good to know that something we have worked so long to do and
so hard to do is now beginning to reach the American people.
I think it is a very timely opportunity for the American people to
have

[[Page S8148]]

a little extra money in their pocketbooks, to be able to do some of the
things that maybe they weren't going to be able to do, and also,
hopefully, to help spur this economy that is certainly in a stagnant
phase.
We are very excited that July 23 is the week that the first set of
checks go out. They will be going out between now and the end of
September. And everyone who paid taxes last year will receive a rebate.
If you paid taxes and you are a single person, you will receive $300.
If you paid $300, you will receive $300 back. If you are a single
person who is the head of a household--a single mom or dad--you will
receive $500 in the mail. If you are a married couple, you will receive
$600 in the mail if you paid taxes and if you filed your taxes for
2000. Starting July 23, those checks will be in the mail during the
course of the next 2 months.
Now, we are very hopeful that people will be able to take this money
and do something that they might not have been able to do otherwise. It
might be just helping buy the children back-to-school supplies or
clothes or shoes; it might be a little added something for a vacation--
if you are getting your check in time for vacation, or maybe you are
planning on doing it. It could be investing for your pension. It could
be that little added bonus of $300 or $600 that you would put into
retirement. Whatever a person does with their money will help the
economy because it will be an investment--an investment in something
for use today or an investment in something for use over the next few
years. All of that will be helpful. We are looking at layoffs being
advertised in the newspaper now, so people are needing that little
extra boost in many ways.
I think it is just a great opportunity to say that we do have a
surplus in our Government. We are doing the job that we were elected to
do in a responsible way by covering the expenses that we know we must
cover--expenses such as a strong national defense, expenses for
Medicare and Social Security, expenses for the welfare needs for our
country. A lot of money is going into education. We are increasing
education spending by 14 percent.
But there is still money left over because we have been careful with
our taxpayer dollars, and we thought that the people should share in
that surplus. They created that surplus and they should share in it.
They pay for it. The taxpayers of our country fund the Government, and
when we are efficient, we think the taxpayers who pay the bills should
get the return.
We are very proud of the fact that the checks are starting to come in
the mail today and people will start seeing they have money coming.
I am proud all of us in Congress have come together to do this, and I
am very pleased this rebate is just the beginning. In fact, we are
going to see rate cuts. Many people who have taxes withheld will see
their withholding has gone down 1 percent. So less is being taken out
of their paycheck. They will be paying fewer taxes next year and every
year for the next 10 years.
Over the next 10 years, we will gradually decrease the marriage tax
penalty. This is a tax that hits married couples where there are two
working spouses and they pay more in taxes because of a quirk in the
Tax Code, and we are eliminating that quirk or at least we are
whittling it away. We have not totally eliminated it, but hopefully we
will get to do that someday as well.
We are lowering the marriage tax penalty. We are going to eliminate
the death tax, a tax that I think is the wrong approach. If one is
seeking the American dream, we want them to keep the money they earn
and we want them to be able to pass it to their children if they choose
to do that. We certainly do not think Uncle Sam should tax a person's
death, and we especially do not want people to have to sell assets--
small business assets or property--in order to pay the death tax.
There is more coming. The downpayment is in the mail today, and we
are very proud to be able to talk about it.
I thank the Chair. I yield the floor to the Senator from Missouri.
Mr. BOND. Madam President, my sincere thanks to my colleague from
Texas for giving us that fine overview of what is happening this week.
I am very happy to report I had the pleasure last Friday of joining my
colleague from Kansas, Senator Brownback, and several Members of the
House, in a trip to Kansas City, MO, with the Vice President and the
Secretary of the Treasury, Paul O'Neill.
We went out to see a fascinating operation, not well-known, the
Federal Financial Management Service branch of the Treasury in Clay
County, North Kansas City. There the men and women who work for the
Treasury Department's FMS are turning out 1.2 million checks a day.
They print the checks, they put them in envelopes, they sort them by
ZIP Code, and they are ready to go out the door. They do the whole
process there. There are 1.2 million checks a day going out.
I do not happen to have the lowest last two digits in my Social
Security number, so mine will not be coming for several weeks, but it
was thrilling to see a promise made and a promise kept.
That is one of the things the Vice President talked about, and the
President joined us by videotape to emphasize the fact that last year
he said we needed a tax reduction, and he delivered. He delivered with
help from a Republican Congress, and we also thank those on the other
side of the aisle who joined with us to make it a bipartisan push to
get the bill passed ultimately, and three Members from the other side
of the aisle who stayed with us on the very difficult votes to make
sure we did not lose any more from the amount promised by the
President.
The President signed the Economic Growth and Tax Relief
Reconciliation Act of 2001 on June 7, and we are seeing literally the
checks in the mail. It is a change from the old laugh lines from the
Federal Government: I am here to help you, and the check is in the
mail. This time we are from the Federal Government, the checks are in
the mail, but we are returning your money. This is not somebody else's
money you are getting.
This act provides the largest tax cut to the American people since
1981, and not a moment too soon given the economic slump we are
currently enduring.
There has been a lot of talk about how maybe, with the economy
slowing down, we cannot afford a tax cut. Let me tell my colleagues and
anyone else who is interested that whether you are a supply-sider or a
Keynesian, there is no better time for tax relief to get the economy
moving by leaving money in the hands of those who earned it and
allowing them to spend it and invest it. My colleague from Texas told
us about the many different uses these tax rebates can be put to, but
putting that money back in the hands of the hard-working Americans who
earned it is the very best thing we can do to get the economy growing
again.

We saw what happened when the Republican Congress pushed through a
capital gains reduction about 4 or 5 years ago. No. 1, despite the
gloomy predictions of many old-line liberal economists, receipts to the
Federal Government did not go down. In fact, they went up because more
people unlocked the investments they had locked away with large capital
gains built up and they sold those assets, generating revenue for the
Federal Government. More important, they invested in the economy, in
the information technology that kept the economy growing through much
of the remainder of the 1990s.
Alan Greenspan, who is no wild-side, born-again, anti-government
conservative, had been preaching to us on the Budget Committee, the
Banking Committee, and anybody who would listen to him that we needed
to start reducing the debt.
With the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, we did force
through a balanced budget. We did bring spending under control. We are
starting to bring the debt down. We have provided the incentive for the
economy to grow with a capital gains tax reduction, and we generated
more revenue with that tax reduction.
Late last fall, when Alan Greenspan came before us, he said: The time
has come to start giving money back to those who earned it. Tax rates
are too high. We need to continue to move to reduce the debt, but we
have threatened to build up such a surplus, because of the excessive
taxation imposed on this economy in 1993, that we are going to be in a
position where we will put a stranglehold on the economy and
potentially have the Federal Government buying up private assets, i.e.,

[[Page S8149]]

nationalism or socialism, if we do not start leaving more money in the
pockets of hard-working Americans. So we began the process promised by
President Bush of reducing taxes.
It turns out that not the recession officially but the downturn that
was forecast by the stock market in March of last year, and which
really began to take effect this quarter a year ago, which really
accelerated during the winter, was getting worse, and the tax relief
that President Bush promised was not only a matter of fairness for
American taxpayers but it was a vitally needed boost for the economy.
When there is an economic downturn, the worst thing that can be done
is to raise taxes. Herbert Hoover had a depression named after him
because when he saw the economy turn down, he said: We have to maintain
the surplus. So he jacked up taxes and tariffs, and he led the United
States to take the world down into a worldwide depression.
I hope we have learned. I hope we have learned we can tell those
naysayers who say, oh, my gosh, we have an economic downturn so we have
to raise taxes, that is the dumbest thing we can do. There is very
rarely a time when we will see fiscal policy being an accurate,
effective countercyclical measure.
This is the time to put money back in the pockets of hard-working
Americans who have earned it. I am very proud to have been one to
support that tax cut all the way.

The rebate checks are going out, the child tax credit will increase,
the marriage penalty will be reduced, educational savings improvements
will be made. For Missouri small businesses, the devastating impact of
the death tax will be reduced, and there will be incentives for helping
people fund their retirement.
There is more to be done. I look forward to working with my
colleagues to assure that permanent tax relief, that this measure is
made permanent, and that we have a more fair, simpler, and flatter Tax
Code. We are working to fulfill the promise that President Bush made. I
am proud to have been part of it. I look forward to continuing to work
on that team.
I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Texas.
Mrs. HUTCHISON. I thank the Senator from Missouri for talking about
his trip with the Vice President, and once again emphasizing a promise
made is a promise kept. I thank the Senator from Missouri.
I yield up to 5 minutes to the Senator from Idaho.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Idaho.
Mr. CRAIG. Madam President, I thank my colleague from Texas for
bringing this issue to the floor this morning and allowing time to talk
about what is going on in the mailboxes of Americans today. The rebate
checks are coming home.
A week and a half ago I was in Idaho walking across a street in a
small town. A lady yelled across the street at me: When am I getting my
check?
True story. It happened. I said: They will be mailed out in a week
and a half. What are you going to do with your check?
She says: I have four kids and we are going to Wal-Mart to buy school
clothes.
That is the message that is coming home to America today. President
Bush recognized that hard-working Americans were being taxed at the
highest level ever in our country's history. He worked with us, we
supported him, and as a result, when someone says today ``the check is
in the mail,'' literally it is happening.
This week, America's taxpayers began to receive the rebate check we
promised them, that President Bush promised them, that began to pull
down the surplus and keep money out of the hands of Government and
return tax dollars to the hard-working American families who sent them
here in the first place.
In Idaho households, over 380,000 checks will arrive between now and
September 24. That represents $167 million to Idaho. That is a lot of
money in our State. We are a small State. We have 1.2 million citizens.
That is going to have a phenomenal impact on the Idaho economy.
Nationally, that is 91.6 million taxpayers and about $39 billion.

This time, I am proud of what we have done as a Congress. Congress
did it right. Tax relief is reaching the people at the right time. It
will boost their confidence in the economy and their Government. I
think it will restore a little financial freedom when they need it. I
think you must always recognize with hard-working families, mom and dad
both working, if they have children, and of course they want children,
that is a very important but very real expense.
Just like that lady in Blackfoot the other day who said, ``I'm going
to Wal-Mart and buy clothes for my kids,'' Americans will spend it;
they will save it. I don't care about all the great speculation and
debate that Americans are not going to save it and it isn't going to
help the economy. Speculators, frankly, I don't care. It is the
citizens' money that is being returned to them and they will do a
little bit of both with it. I think it is important we recognize once
the money is in the hands of the American working family, politicians
can't direct it or, more importantly, misdirect it.
The moms will go to Wal-Mart and buy clothes for their kids. It may
pick up a good number of tankfuls of gas. It may well put food on the
table or it might go into someone's savings account. That is what it is
all about.
I heard some critics try to disparage or make fun of the rebate,
saying it is only $300 or $500 or $600. To some families, getting a
$600 check in the mail can make all the difference in the world about
some of the choices they will make this late summer or fall. It may
well be the price they pay for a little additional vacation they had
cut short because of the energy bills and the higher gas prices that
they were going to be paying this year. That is what a tax rebate is
all about. Anyone who ridicules the rebate, my guess is they have lost
touch with the American people and the hard-working men and women who
get up every day and go to work and spend 8 or 10 or 12 hours at work
and pay their taxes because they think that is the way good Americans
ought to function. Many do it, and thank goodness they do it. Now we
are able to reward them just a little bit.
My advice to the naysayer: If you don't need the rebate, give it back
to the Treasury. Give it to a charity. Do something with it other than
spend it on your family or save it because it is your money and we have
guaranteed you the freedom to make that choice.
By the way, the Treasury Department has always had a fund to receive
contributions. So those who do not like the tax cut, give it back.
Those who find it valuable, spend it and enjoy it. It is your money.
The check is in the mail.
I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Texas.
Mrs. HUTCHISON. I thank the Senator from Idaho. I appreciate all the
work he has done to make this tax relief package a reality. He has been
working on it for a long time. He is one of our leaders and we
appreciate his keeping the promises he made to the people of Idaho in
helping every American have a little more money in the next 2 months to
spend on the needs that he described, such as the mom of four children
going to Wal-Mart to buy the clothes for her children to start school.
Now, Madam President, I yield up to 5 minutes to Senator Thomas from
Wyoming.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Wyoming.
Mr. THOMAS. Madam President, I thank my friend, the Senator from
Texas, for this time.
It is important we talk a little bit about some of the things that
have been done and the impact we will see immediately. This is unique.
I cannot recall it ever happening this way before, where there were
excessive dollars available that came in, and more taxes than were
necessary to carry out the essential elements of Government. There was
a need for an economic boost and there is. So we took this opportunity
to return some of this excess money to the people who have paid it.
That is a basic issue and one we deal with quite often. That is a
difference of philosophy in terms of how we handle money. Obviously,
everyone agrees there has to be a sufficient amount of money to take
care of the necessary functioning of Government, although there is a
difference in view of what the

[[Page S8150]]

functions would be. There is also a philosophical difference among
those who would say we have money, so let's increase the role of
Government; let's spend more and have more programs. Others say, wait a
minute, let's try to keep the role of Government limited and return
this excess money to the people who paid it. That is what this is.
It is a very basic issue, one that is philosophical but it is the
right thing to do.
I hear this business, from time to time, about millionaires are going
to get $300 a day. How many people do you think, of all the taxpayers
who are going to get a check in the mail, are millionaires? The people
I have seen are not millionaires, the people who are going to get some
of the money they paid. All taxpayers who have paid their dollars will
reap some benefits from this distribution.
That is what it is all about. Further, I think it is necessary at the
same time to recognize that on June 7 of this year, this Republican
Congress and the White House kept a commitment to the American people
and delivered the most significant tax relief in 20 years. Not only
will we have this distribution, of course, which is designed to give
some immediate impact to it, both for the taxpayers themselves and for
the economy--$300 for single filers, $500 for single moms, $600 for
families, and that is very important--but following that, of course, is
a new tax law that goes a long way to restore fairness in the Tax Code.
It reduces the marriage penalty, which my friend from Texas was
obviously almost the singular leader in causing that to happen, and we
appreciate it, the death tax, doubles the child credit and child care
enhancements. We need to recognize that over a period of time we are
going to do a great deal to increase fairness and return dollars via
the Tax Code, although that doesn't happen for several years. That is
why this is very important, this immediate impact. I think it is one of
the greatest things that can happen. And, in addition, it should
happen.
We now hear people talking about raising taxes, for heavens' sake,
when we are facing difficulties in the economy. When we find ourselves
with real surpluses, to talk about raising taxes --give me a break. I
cannot imagine anything more unlikely to happen than that.
I think we should feel very good about what has happened. I am
hopeful all these checks will be out very soon. They are now in the
mail. Beyond this, I want to emphasize again we have had a significant
change in the tax culture and the Tax Code over time. This is the most
important thing. I am happy to have had a chance to participate in it
and recognize it today.
I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Texas.
Mrs. HUTCHISON. Madam President, I thank the Senator from Wyoming for
working on this ever since he has been in the Senate, for being
committed to tax relief for every hard-working American, and for being
one of our leaders, speaking out on this issue and talking about how
important it is that we not only give tax relief right now, but also
hopefully will have another tax relief package in the near future. We
want to have all the surplus used wisely. That means part of it should
go back to the taxpayers who have worked so hard to earn it.
I am pleased to yield the remainder of our time to the Senator from
Pennsylvania, Mr. Santorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Pennsylvania has 3
minutes 20 seconds.
Mr. SANTORUM. Madam President, I thank the Senator from Texas and the
Senator from Wyoming for being here this morning to talk about what I
think is one of the most important issues we can talk about in the
Senate, and that is what we are going to do to strengthen our economy.
Why is it I put it in that context? The right medicine at this time is
to put more resources into the economy to get this rather flat-line
economy right now jump started.
Over the past year now, we have been going through a fairly
substantial economic slowdown. The right medicine is exactly what the
Congress did. We worked very hard with the President of the United
States to pass a tax relief measure that got an infusion of money out
into the public just in the nick of time, I hope--I hope just in the
nick of time to help get this economy up and going and churning again.
Checks are in the mail and being received by people all across America
in amounts that are substantial, in amounts that are meaningful to
people, to families who are preparing for their children to go back to
school and need to buy school clothes and books and school supplies.
Those are the kinds of expenditures that I know, with the number of
children I have, can put a real pinch in your budget because they are
one-time expenditures, mostly at end of the summer, the beginning of
the fall, and they are very difficult to budget.
This check coming at this time can provide some help to middle-class
and lower income families who really do need this help and help the
economy at the same time. It gets that infusion of money into our
economy.
I am proud that we were able to work in a bipartisan way in the
Senate. Twenty-five percent of the Senate Democrats along with the
Republicans voted for this proposal. It showed that with good
leadership we can get bipartisan work done to meet the needs of the
American people, to help the average American. At the same time, we can
strengthen our economy at a time when we are going through a very
difficult slowdown.
I know there are other things we need to do. We need a national
energy policy because at least in my State, in Pennsylvania, we have
some real problems in our manufacturing sector, driven principally by
high energy prices over the past 18 months. We need to have a national
energy policy so we do not have these spikes that cause economic
downturns and difficult times in our manufacturing sector, which is
still, from my perspective, a very important sector of our economy.
We need to do something on trade. We need to open up new
opportunities to trade around the world, which by doing so will create
better jobs in America. The economy is important. We need to be aware
here in the Senate of what we can do at a time of economic slowdown to
get this economy up and running.
The first and most important thing is to reduce the tax burden on the
American public to get more money in the economy. The second thing is
to develop a national energy policy to make sure we have stable, long-
term, affordable, clean energy for America's future so we are not
relying on foreign energy and that problem. The third thing is to
increase trade.
I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the next
30 minutes shall be under the control of the Senator from Illinois.

____________________