[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 116 (Wednesday, August 1, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H5535]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                THE POWER TO TAX IS THE POWER TO DESTROY

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, ``The last thing you want to do is 
to raise taxes in the middle of a recession because that would take 
more demand out of the economy and put business in a further hole.''
  That's what the President said in 2009, but that was then and this is 
now. If Congress doesn't act, Americans will face higher taxes when the 
clock strikes midnight on December 31 of this year. The President's 
solution is to raise taxes on some. That would eliminate 700,000 jobs 
in our country; 60,000 of those would be lost in my home State of 
Texas. The tax increase will cost the average American a year's worth 
of groceries--$4,000.
  Madam Speaker, almost half of Americans pay no Federal income tax at 
all. What we need are more taxpayers, not more taxes. We need to renew 
the so-called ``Kennedy-Reagan-Bush tax cuts.'' No tax increases on 
Americans. Because the power to tax is the power to destroy, and the 
last thing we should do is raise taxes in a recession.
  And that's just the way it is.

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