[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 44 (Thursday, April 18, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H1414]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            HIGHWAY ROBBERY

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, President Bush and the Republicans in 
Congress proclaim that today's vote to make permanent last year's $2 
trillion tax cut is merely to correct a quirk in the law that sunset 
the entire tax cut December 31, 2010.
  That was no quirk. The Republicans controlled the House, the Senate 
and the White House. They wrote it into the law because they wanted to 
hide the implications of these massive tax cuts; the fact that they 
were going to put us back in deficit, that they were going to take 
money from the Social Security lock box, which they just voted for 
seven times, and they just wanted to pretend.
  Well, now the pretension is over. They are revealing their true side. 
Make these cuts permanent. If they are successful in doing that, 
another $400 billion of deficit in the next 10 years, every penny of it 
coming out of the Social Security trust fund, money raised with a 
regressive flat tax which is going to fund estate tax relief for people 
with estates over $5 million and people who earn over $373,000 a year.
  That is what this vote is all about, plain and simple. No quirk; it 
is highway robbery.

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