[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 27 (Tuesday, February 26, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H641]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          TAX INCREASES ARE A LOUSY DEFICIT REDUCTION STRATEGY

  (Mr. BARR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to put this week's debate about 
scheduled budget cuts into some much-needed context. The Federal 
Government spent $3.5 trillion last year. And yet, even with the $85 
billion in cuts scheduled to occur over the next 7 months, the CBO 
still projects that Federal spending will be $15 billion higher this 
year than last year.
  Only in Washington can billions in cuts be made, total spending still 
increase, and some claim that the problem is that taxes still aren't 
high enough. The President got his tax increase 7 weeks ago. But the 
government spent every dime of this year's revenue from that tax 
increase in just 7 days.
  Mr. Speaker, raising taxes is a lousy deficit reduction strategy 
because in Washington, tax revenue is never dedicated to deficit 
reduction. Instead, new taxes are always used to finance more 
government and more spending.
  Rather than demand more tax increases as the solution, I encourage 
everyone to work together to replace the indiscriminate spending cuts 
with a smarter plan that sets priorities--but which still enacts an 
equal amount of much-needed spending restraint.

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