[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 175 (Tuesday, November 13, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14237-S14238]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      WISDOM OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, right outside this Chamber stands a 
statue of Ben Franklin. According to the Office of the Senate Curator, 
sculptor Hiram Powers received a contract from President James Buchanan 
himself to sculpt Franklin back in 1859. The statue arrived in the 
Capitol in 1862 and has been in that spot ever since.
  Franklin wrote many famous aphorisms that live on to this day, and I 
wanted to talk about one of my favorites.
  Two hundred eighteen years ago today, Franklin wrote to a friend 
words that will long outlive most

[[Page S14238]]

things we say. This is what Franklin had to say:

       Nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

  Proving the aphorism, Franklin died less than a year later.
  While we know the certainty of death and taxes, we can do something 
to ease the burden for the 23 million Americans who will be in for a 
rather unpleasant surprise on April 15 if Congress doesn't act now to 
stop the middle-class tax hike, which goes by the rather innocuous name 
of AMT--a law that was originally intended in 1969 to impose taxes on a 
handful of high-income individuals who used loopholes in the code to 
avoid paying any regular income tax.
  Congress has known about the need to fix this problem all year long, 
but the majority hasn't brought a bill to the floor. Now they say it 
will be December before a bill is brought to the floor.
  Now, the consequences of mismanaging this stealth tax are very real. 
This tax will grab $65 billion out of the pockets of middle-class 
taxpayers, an average of $2,000 per family. Millions will be hit for 
the very first time.
  The IRS sent a letter warning the majority that unless they act 
before December, the tax returns of 50 million people and $75 billion 
in tax refunds will be delayed.
  Last week, Democrats in the House of Representatives passed a bill 
that purports to delay the burden of the AMT for 1 year by socking a 
massive $80 billion tax increase to the American people. That is the 
last thing they need right now, and it would be a disastrous jolt to 
the economy.
  Maybe a massive tax hike wrapped in an AMT fix sounds like a very 
good idea to some people, but I have a message to anyone who thinks 
that: Such a proposal is dead on arrival in the Senate.
  The AMT was never meant to be collected from the millions of 
Americans whom it will hit this year if we don't act. I say this 
Congress ought to cut taxes by cutting taxes--cut taxes by cutting 
taxes--not by raising taxes.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________