[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12127-12128]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



           MINORITY LEADER WOULD CUT DEFENSE AND RAISE TAXES

  (Mr. HEFLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HEFLEY. Madam Speaker, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. 
Gephardt), the House minority leader, was apparently caught off guard 
recently and said out loud what he really thinks about defense spending 
and about taxes. He said, and I quote, and I have it on this chart, 
``You have got to have a combination of taking it out of the defense 
budget and raising revenue. We can argue about how to do that, closing 
loopholes or even raising taxes to do it.''
  That is right. He proposed to raise taxes and cut defense. And then, 
even more amazing is that he was given a chance to clarify his remarks 
in a letter to the editor of the Washington

[[Page 12128]]

Times. Did he say that he would oppose tax increases? Did he say he 
would retract his words? Did he repudiate the notion that what this 
country needs is to weaken our military and raise taxes? No. He wrote, 
``I have no intention of proposing or supporting any tax increases.''
  No intention? The last time we heard that was 1992, only 1 year 
before President Clinton gave us the greatest tax increase in our 
Nation's history.

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