[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2538]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                   THE PRESIDENT'S TAX REDUCTION PLAN

  (Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland. Mr. Speaker, the President is today out in 
the heartland of America promoting his tax reduction plan, and it 
sparked a very interesting debate.
  Everybody agrees that the money is going to be spent. The only 
argument is who is going to spend it, the hard-working American 
taxpayer who earned it or the bureaucrats in Washington who have taken 
it from them in higher than necessary taxes.
  Mr. Speaker, the argument is very simple. There is going to be a lot 
of rhetoric about this, but cut through the rhetoric and listen to what 
they are saying. What they are saying is that you who earned it are too 
dumb to spend it wisely, so because they care so much for you, they are 
going to keep your money, rather than give it back to you, because if 
they gave it back to you, you would not spend it wisely and bureaucrats 
in Washington will spend it more wisely than you will.
  I do not think the average American believes that, Mr. Speaker, and I 
think that the proposed tax cut is even too small. It is going to leave 
too much money on the table. And if it is there, the bureaucrats in 
Washington are going to spend it, and we ought to give it back to the 
people. They earned it, and they will spend it better than we will.

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