[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 85 (Thursday, June 23, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H4989]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
        LET US DISCONNECT THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR TELEPHONE TAX

  (Mr. POE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to announce to all Americans that 
the Spanish-American War of 1898 has ended. It has been 107 years since 
the war was over and Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders went up San 
Juan Hill and we won that war. Yet 95 percent of all Americans are 
still paying for it and do not even know it.
  Introduced in 1898 was a phone tax, which established the concept of 
a temporary luxury tax to defray costs on the Spanish-American War. It 
started on 1,300 phones, a tax on telephones. Today more than 100 
million American households across the Nation still are paying for this 
excise tax to the tune of $5.6 billion a year on their phone services 
such as land lines, cell phones, and dial-up Internet connection. This 
tax strikes at every use of the telephone and burdens everyone, 
especially those in lower incomes.
  Initially, this tax was used to finance this 3-month Spanish-American 
War, but it has been made permanent and was even raised in World War 
II.
  So I would like to commend the gentleman from California for 
sponsoring legislation to get rid of this ``temporary tax.'' This tax 
has proved there is no such thing as a temporary tax, and let us 
disconnect the Spanish-American tax on telephones.

                          ____________________