[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 23333]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



            GOVERNOR BUSH MISSES MARK ON COUNTRY PROSPERITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, we are engaged in a great fiscal debate in 
which the Governor of Texas tells us that, under his plan, every 
American who pays taxes will get tax relief. He is completely wrong. He 
should know that there are 15 million Americans who pay Federal taxes, 
who pay FICA taxes out of their wages that will not get a penny out of 
his tax plan, because he ignores the working poor. Those who care for 
people in nursing homes, those who clean our buildings and wash our 
cars are left behind. What is worse, of course, is that he provides 
almost half the benefits to the richest 1 percent of Americans.
  Now, what concerns me most about the Governor's statements is that he 
mocks the importance of fiscal responsibility when he tells the country 
that the prosperity of the last 8 years has nothing to do with 
governmental decisions made in Washington.
  He is correct that the lion's share of the credit for our national 
prosperity goes to American workers whose ingenuity, hard work and 
inventiveness is building a new economy. But for political gain, he 
denies that there is another essential element, and that is fiscal 
responsibility here in Washington.
  By denying that what we do here in Washington has anything to do with 
how the economy performs, he grants to us a fiscal license, a statement 
that government has nothing to do with prosperity, hence government can 
do whatever it wants.
  The fact is otherwise. The facts are that, during the mid-1980s and 
the late 1980s and the early 1990s, Americans were hard working and 
inventive and ingenious, and yet we did not have prosperity in this 
country.

                              {time}  1945

  Why? Because we had a budget deficit that was growing every year and 
threatened to swallow up private savings in our economy. We cannot 
afford the license the political rhetoric from the Governor of Texas 
would grant.
  Now, we are told by the Governor that he does not want to provide so 
much benefit to the upper 1 percent. He tells us that his plan will 
provide only $223 billion of tax relief to that richest 1 percent over 
the next 10 years. He does this by ignoring the second largest piece of 
his proposal, and that is his repeal of the estate tax. He tries to 
minimize the fiscal effect of that by using fuzzy phase-in figures.
  But the fact is the estate tax will be producing $50 billion a year, 
$500 billion over 10 years, which means the wealthiest 1 percent, over 
a 10-year period, will be getting $700 billion of tax relief, not just 
the $223 billion the Governor admits to. That is why when we look at 
the estate tax and the income tax the conclusion is clear: he provides 
more tax relief for the wealthiest 1 percent than everything he 
proposes to do to help our health care system, to strengthen Medicare, 
to strengthen the military and to provide for our schools combined.
  It is time that we focus on the fiscal details of the plans of those 
who are running for President. This is not a popularity contest.

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