[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14268]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

  (Mr. ARMEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ARMEY. Mr. Speaker, I want to go on record as saying I, for one, 
do not believe that former Senator Moynihan is a termite.
  Mr. Speaker, I am worried about the left wing of the Democrat party. 
Mr. Speaker, I think they are losing it. In all corners of the 
Washington liberal establishment, there is panic. War has been declared 
on the people's tax relief. Just as the checks are in the mail, dire 
predictions and horrifying stories are being told about a government 
doing without, catastrophe for the economy, all because we sent a small 
portion of record surpluses back to the taxpayers who sent their money 
to Washington.
  Good grief, Mr. Speaker. What are we to do with this kind of panic on 
the left?
  Over the weekend, they put their foot down. A very distinguished 
Member of this body announced with pride his belief that the tax 
increases of 1993 were the right thing to do and that he would do it 
again.
  Mr. Speaker, in a fine bit of revisionist history, the Democrat 
leadership has proclaimed that 1993 budget, Bill Clinton's first 
budget, as a huge boon to the American economy and the American people.
  Let me say this about that budget. It did do three very important 
things: it did raise taxes on energy; it did raise taxes on seniors; 
and it raised taxes on the working middle class, that is, Mr. Speaker, 
working moms trying to move up the economic ladder. And this Member 
said he would do it again. I give him credit for brutal honesty, that 
is, it is honest and it is brutal.
  What a view of the world. What a denial of basic economics.
  Tax relief is good for the American economy, good for American 
families. The refund checks being delivered today to American homes 
even as we meet will help buy school clothes, help pay bills, maybe 
even help with home improvement projects to make a house more energy 
efficient.
  Mr. Speaker, I call on my friends from the other side of the aisle, 
reject this view that the Government needs this money more than real 
people do. Come out into the light. Reject this war on tax relief and 
embrace the sunshine of economic opportunity for the 20th century. Try 
it once. Try it once. Cut taxes for real people; and I bet you will 
feel so good you will say, I will do it again.

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