[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13824]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         COST OF GOVERNMENT DAY

  (Mr. GIBBONS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, today is Cost of Government Day, and as 
George Bernard Shaw once said, ``A government which robs from Peter to 
pay Paul can always depend upon the support of Paul.''
  Well, the tax paying Americans have been robbed because during the 
first 173 days of the year, every penny earned by the hard-working men 
and women of this Nation has been used to pay for government 
bureaucracy and the added cost of government regulations.
  It did not go to pay for their kids' education. It did not go to pay 
for medical costs or expenses. It did not go to pay for the home 
mortgage. It all went to pay for government bureaucracy and regulatory 
agencies.
  Almost one-half of the year's effort of these hard-working Americans 
was spent just to pick up the tab for government bloated bureaucracy. 
Decades, decades of unchecked growth and deficit spending by the tax 
and spenders have left the hard-working men and women of this country 
with this crushing tax burden.
  The vast majority of Americans do not object to paying their fair 
share of taxes, but they do object to the suffocating level of taxation 
that exists today.
  Mr. Speaker, for our children's sake, let us allow hard-working 
families to keep more of their money, not less. Let us stop robbing 
Peter to pay Paul.
  I urge my colleagues to support meaningful tax reform this year.




                          ____________________