[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12438]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



        DEMOCRATS PROPOSE TO RAISE OUR TAXES, LOWER OUR DEFENSES

  (Mr. SCHAFFER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SCHAFFER. Madam Speaker, raise our taxes and lower our defenses. 
That is what the top Democrat in the House just proposed the other day.
  What must other Democrats be saying privately about the statement 
made by the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Richard Gephardt), the 
minority leader, about his desire to cut defenses and raise taxes?
  Most of them quietly agree with the Democrat leader, but they also 
know that politically it would be difficult to express out loud their 
belief that taxes are not high enough, that middle-class families 
should endure the tax-and-spend policies of liberal Democrats.
  Perhaps they are applauding their leader's courage for standing up 
for what they believe, a smaller defense and greater taxes. But it 
seems many of them are also nervous.
  What if Americans learn that Democrats still stand for the 1960's 
style liberalism of even bigger government, ever higher taxes, and less 
freedom for individuals?
  This is a truly fascinating case in American politics today. Right 
now in Congress, Democrats stand in the way of a Republican tax cut. 
And now Democrats have made public their plans to lower our defenses 
and raise our taxes.

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