[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9357-9358]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                       REAL TAX RELIEF IS NEEDED

  (Mr. POMEROY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. POMEROY. Mr. Speaker, House and Senate conferees are grinding 
away on a massive budget reconciliation act, rushing to try and 
complete business before we leave for the Memorial Day recess.
  I believe there are three questions we can appropriately raise about 
the tax relief proposed in this act. Is it fair? Is it timely? Does it 
allow for other priorities?
  First, is it fair? In the Senate version, the top 1 percent of wage 
earners in this country get 35 percent of the relief. The top 10 
percent, most affluent 10 percent, get half, 54 percent, of the relief. 
The lowest paid 40 percent of us in this country get 7 percent under 
this

[[Page 9358]]

tax bill. The bottom 20 percent get a single percent of the relief.

                              {time}  1015

  Is it timely? It is not phased in for years. The phase-in on the 
marriage penalty relief does not even begin until 4 years from now. 
That is not marriage penalty relief, that is a distant anniversary 
present, much less than is represented in the tax bill.
  Finally, is there room for other priorities? There is not a dollar of 
additional defense spending as soon to be recommended by the Secretary 
of Defense contained in this budget. It raises the prospect that we 
will be raiding the trust funds, and the tax bill should be defeated.

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