[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5200]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                 30 PERCENT SALES TAX IS NOT TAX REFORM

  (Mr. SHERMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, as we approach the tax deadline, our 
thoughts go toward tax reform. We ought to have genuine tax reform, 
code section by code section, unraveling the loopholes and the special 
interest provisions.
  That is why, Mr. Speaker, I regret what the Committee on Ways and 
Means is doing right now as we sit here. They are considering replacing 
our existing tax law with a 30 percent sales tax on everything every 
American buys, from rent to services to goods.
  They disguise it as a 23 percent tax. They claim it is a 23 percent 
tax, and here is their logic. One buys something for 100 bucks, one 
pays a $30 tax. They say that is only 23 percent tax on the $130 total 
price. It is a 30 percent sales tax.
  But the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation says that, in order 
to be revenue neutral and replace all Federal revenues, the tax would 
have to be 59.9 percent. All of this so that Steve Forbes can make tens 
of millions here, spend it on the Italian Riviera, and not pay a penny 
in American tax.

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