[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 10132]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                 HISTORIC TAX CUT BILL SIGNED INTO LAW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Culberson) for his passionate and eloquent remarks today, as ever.
  The Good Book tells us, oh, how the mighty have fallen, Mr. Speaker. 
And today, for the first time in a generation, the President of the 
United States has sundered a portion of the mighty and onerous Internal 
Revenue Code, a sundering entirely, for all of history, it is my hope, 
that onerous tax that wages war on small businesses and family farms, 
the inheritance tax, the estate tax, most notably remembered and 
hopefully forgotten, to be the death tax.
  Mr. Speaker, I was pleased and honored as a new Member of Congress to 
join President Bush this morning as he signed a historic tax cut bill 
into law. On a personal note, Mr. Speaker, today is my 42nd birthday, 
and it made it all the more sweet to stand in that place of places, the 
White House, with the 43rd President of the United States of America 
and take upon myself a gift not only for my birthday, but for all 
Americans, the gift of tax relief that President Bush signed today.
  I truly believe that the tax relief signed into law today will 
stimulate our economy by reducing the heavy income tax burden on 
American workers. By signing this bill into law, the President 
increases the per-child tax credit by doubling it, reduces tax rates 
for all taxpayers. This is a President who is committed, as he said 
today, to a Tax Code that does not pick winners and losers; it is tax 
relief for all taxpayers. The President and this Congress also 
courageously took on and defeated the marriage penalty and ended that 
onerous death tax.
  As layoffs in my home State of Indiana will attest, even a headline 
in my hometown of Columbus, Indiana, this last weekend read, there have 
been nearly 2,500 layoffs in east central Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I have 
been saying to my colleagues since I arrived in Washington, D.C. that 
this town seems more than happy to debate whether or not we will some 
day be in a recession. Mr. Speaker, in east central Indiana, we are 
already in a recession. Families are hurting, and I believe that this 
economy has been suffering under 8 years of increased taxes and 
regulatory red tape.
  By signing this tax cut into law today, President Bush has begun to 
put our economy back on the right track. President Bush's tax plan will 
help working people, small businesses, and family farmers recover from 
this economic malaise, and it will begin to set free those struggling 
under the oppressive burden of high taxes.
  Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, once said, 
``We need true tax reform that will at least make a start toward 
restoring for our children the American dream, that wealth is denied to 
no one, that each individual has the right to fly as high as his 
strength and his ability or her ability will take them.''
  Like the tax cuts of the 1980s, today's tax relief package will allow 
our economy to take wing, as Ronald Reagan envisioned. This means 
families will be better equipped to save for their children's 
education, a down payment on a home, to pay off mounting credit card 
debt, to put a few dollars away to pay for their children's education 
and for college. And even to save, Mr. Speaker, for their own 
retirement. By lifting the tax burden, as President Bush did today, 
signing the measure that the Republican Congress passed into law, we 
are continuing efforts to do no less than to renew the American dream.
  It is my erstwhile hope that the signing of this tax cut into law is 
only the beginning of a new era of fiscal responsibility in Washington, 
D.C. With the President's tax-cutting leadership, Congress has passed 
an increased child tax credit, rate reductions for all taxpayers, a 
marriage penalty relief bill, and Death Tax Elimination Act all in one 
measure. This is a historic day. This is a historic accomplishment, Mr. 
Speaker.
  Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Today, we put the ax to the root of 
the Internal Revenue Code as it wages war on the American dream. Let 
this not be the final battle, but let it be the beginning of our battle 
until we are done renewing the American dream for all the American 
people.

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