[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 13080]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



    WHAT WOULD THE TAX BURDEN BE TODAY WERE IT NOT FOR REPUBLICANS?

  (Mr. SCHAFFER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SCHAFFER. Mr. Speaker, what would the tax burden be today were it 
not for Republicans? Just think about that for a second.
  The Reagan tax cuts, 25 percent across the board, would never have 
taken place. In fact, diehard liberals still rail with bitterness 
against the Reagan tax cut even to this day. It is almost as if they 
are completely oblivious to the hardships of sky high inflation and 
devastatingly high unemployment brought to American families.
  The 1997 tax cuts passed by a Republican Congress also would never 
have taken place.
  Yes, the verdict of history is in. If Democrats had their way, taxes 
would move in one direction and one direction only: Up.
  I refer my colleagues to the comment by the minority leader of the 
Democrat Party just a few weeks ago. He said, ``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.''
  Taxpayers can thank the Republican Party. For without us, taxes would 
surely be much higher.

                          ____________________