[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18749]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



      PEOPLE WHO PAY TAXES ARE WEALTHY, ACCORDING TO THE DEMOCRATS

  (Mr. HEFLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Speaker, I have never once heard a Democrat talk 
about who pays the taxes. I have never heard even a single Democrat 
cite this remarkable statistic: The top 50 percent of income earners 
pay 96 percent of the taxes, while the bottom 50 percent pay only 4 
percent of the taxes.
  Now, let me repeat that, and let me be a little more precise. The top 
50 percent of income earners, according to the latest IRS data, pay 
exactly 95.7 percent of the total Federal income taxes. The bottom 50 
percent, those with incomes below $23,160, the bottom 50 percent pay 
only 4.34 percent of the total Federal income tax in the country. In 
other words, low income earners pay almost no Federal taxes at all.
  That is why any tax cut is immediately labeled tax cut for the 
wealthy. Even the $500 per child tax credit that passed 2 years ago, 
which was available to all families except the wealthy, was called tax 
cuts for the wealthy by the other side.
  If one is a taxpayer, Democrats think one is wealthy, and one should 
not have one's tax reduced under any circumstances.

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