[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

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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.

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