[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 15]
[House]
[Pages 22291-22292]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                   TAX RELIEF FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Hayworth) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HAYWORTH. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Speaker pro tempore, the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston), and I thank my colleague from 
Colorado for the comments that he made earlier this evening, and I 
welcome my colleague from Colorado to the House Committee on Ways and 
Means.
  Mr. Speaker, I would note for our dedicated staff and those who join 
us tonight that I do not intend on taking much time; however, I thought 
it was important to come down and offer a perspective, based on the 
labors of my colleague from Colorado and others who serve on the House 
Committee on Ways and Means and, indeed, the work of this body and the 
other body, in attempting to restore to the American people tax relief 
and tax fairness.
  Mr. Speaker, much has been made in the media from the punditocracy 
about how our President stands foursquare against tax relief for the 
American people, how he is poised to reject almost $800 billion in tax 
relief, and I think a couple of points are worth noting.
  First of all, we should reaffirm in this place at this time that the 
money we are talking about does not belong to the United States 
Government, is not locked away in some secret account in some Federal 
vault; the revenue which runs this government, the money utilized to 
operate this Federal Government comes from the people, Mr. Speaker. 
And, by flourishing a veto pen, Mr. Speaker, the President of the 
United States, in essence, is once again adding to the tax burden of 
the American people; over the next 10 years, adding almost $1 trillion 
in taxes. To be technical about it, in excess of $790 billion in taxes, 
taxes that this body and the other body reduced; taxes that would have 
provided full deductibility of health insurance for small business, 
that would have put an end over the next 10 years to the death tax, 
that would have cut taxes across the board some 1 percent, that would 
have reduced the capital gains rate because Americans should not be 
punished for investing and succeeding.
  We also note, Mr. Speaker, that in the news today, even as we discuss 
the domestic concerns that we have, there are international concerns as 
well. News comes from the other body of a General Accounting Office 
report showing that our President, Mr. Speaker, in three trips alone, 
has spent in excess of $70 million. Indeed, Mr. Speaker, one trip to 
the continent of Africa cost the American people some $40 million with 
staff attendance numbering in excess of 1,000, and with the money, Mr. 
Speaker, coming from accounts belonging to the Defense Department.
  Here is the grand paradox: At a time when we are threatened with 
returning to the days of the hollow force which has haunted the Clinton 
administration and this Nation some 20 years ago, this administration 
is using money that could go to help our men and women in uniform for 
the arrival of Air Force One on another continent and for the ruffles 
and flourishes, in addition to the customary security, which no one 
would deny our Commander in Chief. But it seems to me, Mr. Speaker, to 
be once again a dereliction of duty and indeed, sadly, so often has 
this been the case, in recent weeks, the clemency granted to over one 
dozen Puerto Rican terrorists who were luke warm in their denunciation 
of violence, to the curious conduct in an election year with funds 
supplied by Communist China, and the curious transfer of technology by 
American firms to the People's Republic of China, to reports last week 
of, Mr. Speaker, what can only be called appeasement of the outlaw 
Nation of North Korea. Indeed, characterized by some in the press, and 
I hesitate to use the term, for it is strong, but I believe it is 
accurate, that this great Nation, our great Nation may have succumbed 
to nuclear blackmail.
  Then we go down the list. The pilfering of 900 FBI files of political 
opponents; the sacking of dedicated civil servants at the White House 
Travel Office, and the despair and tragedy that met American citizens 
six years ago in Waco, Texas. It reaches a point, Mr. Speaker, when the 
American people say, is there no end? Is there no justice? Is there, in 
fact, a case to be made for one who would willingly commit perjury and 
obstruction of justice? For if one is derelict in small things, what 
happens when the greater questions arise? What happens with the greater 
questions of national security? What

[[Page 22292]]

happens with the stewardship of the hard-earned dollars of the American 
men and women who offer their funds, freely and voluntarily, through 
taxation?
  We believe, Mr. Speaker, in our common sense majority that there are 
four goals that confront us. One is to bolster and strengthen our 
national security. We have done so in this chamber by working, at long 
last, after a six-year absence, to regain the technological edge in 
terms of a missile defense system for this country, concurrently 
increasing salaries for our military personnel. We have also moved, Mr. 
Speaker, even as we try to improve the lot in life for those men and 
women in uniform, we also recognize that a national priority should be 
education. But, even as it is a national priority, Mr. Speaker, it 
remains a local concern. And, we in this common sense conservative 
majority in this chamber have passed two bills that reflect that. One 
has been nicknamed Ed Flex, educational flexibility in terms of block 
granting a piece of legislation endorsed by all 50 of the Nation's 
governors, whether they were Republican or Democrat, to provide 
flexibility at the State level and ultimately at the local level, so 
that we can return power to the people who are duly elected to local 
school boards, and more importantly, Mr. Speaker, to teachers who seek 
to educate those young people in their classrooms, in their individual 
communities day in and day out.
  Secondly, Mr. Speaker, I was honored that our new Education Land 
Grant Act passed this House by unanimous vote, a procedure calling on 
the great work done by those who have gone before. Justice Smith 
Morrell of Vermont, to be specific, with the Morrell Land Grant Act of 
the 1860s, where we update that to apply that to public and secondary 
school for a conveyance procedure, a uniform procedure for the 
conveyance of Federal land, nonenvironmental sensitive Federal land, 
for the construction of new educational facilities. Again, a tool to 
empower local communities because we understand ultimately that people 
on the front lines at home understand how best to educate our children 
instead of the theories and the spending programs exercised by 
Washington bureaucrats. So those are two of our priorities.
  The third, of course, is to strengthen Social Security and Medicare. 
I look to the work done by my colleagues on the Committee on Ways and 
Means, the chairman, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Archer); the 
Subcommittee on Social Security chairman, the gentleman from Florida 
(Mr. Shaw), trying to work out a plan that will not only save Social 
Security for today's retirees, but for baby boomers who will age into 
that category, and more importantly, for the generations yet to come, 
generations who grow more skeptical about that program as years pass, 
and to put the emphasis on personalization of accounts, so that future 
retirees can have some discretion and some personalization of the way 
in which they would spend their pension funds.
  We also will work on the Committee on Ways and Means of course to 
strengthen Medicare as we again seek to maximize choice and to offer 
prescription drugs to the truly needy among the elderly, rather than a 
government handout, characterized by one of my constituents as an 
effort to raise her Social Security premiums to pay prescription drug 
benefits for the likes of Ross Perot.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, we return to the topic that I mentioned at the 
outset and that is tax relief and tax fairness for all Americans. 
Again, make no mistake. With a veto of the tax bill, the President of 
the United States has, in essence, increased taxes on the American 
people in excess of $700 billion, close to $800 billion. I think it 
amounts to a $1 trillion mistake. But ultimately, Mr. Speaker, the 
American people will be the judge. We will continue to work in this 
chamber in a constructive way to defend the rights of Americans and to 
embrace the notion that the American people work hard for the money 
they earn, and that they should keep more of it and send less of it 
here to Washington.

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