[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8698]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



           IT IS TIME TO ABOLISH THE SPANISH AMERICAN WAR TAX

  (Mr. HEFLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Speaker, one of the top movies in America today is 
``Gladiator,'' a story of a young upstart struggling against an 
outdated and cruel dictatorship.
  This week, the House will witness a similar struggle, Americans with 
phone lines versus the Internal Revenue Service.
  More than 252 million businesses and families use phone lines, 
allowing them access to telephones, faxes, computers, and cellular 
phones. They are beneficiaries of modern technological advances that 
have changed our society, and yet every time Americans use this 
technology, the IRS financially penalizes them with the outdated 
Spanish-American War phone tax.
  This tax was used to fund the Spanish-American War, a conflict which 
began and ended in 1898, 102 years ago. It is yet another case of a 
greedy and overbearing government using any means to tax hard-working 
Americans and this must end.
  This week, let us disconnect Americans from the Spanish-American War 
phone tax.

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