[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 15]
[House]
[Pages 21022-21023]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               TAX RELIEF PROVEN TO STIMULATE THE ECONOMY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Carter). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, in late July Congress recessed and the 
Republicans headed back to their districts amid a firestorm of 
criticism from the left for passing record levels of tax relief.
  Democratic candidates for President issued blistering condemnations 
of tax relief, vowing to repeal the Bush tax cuts. News coverage 
painted the picture of a Nation questioning the value of tax relief. In 
a July 28 Washington Post column entitled, ``Democrats Not Shying Away 
From Tax Talk: Candidates Discuss Raises, Not Cuts,'' of two of those 
candidates, both called for repeal of the cuts, a move The Washington 
Post notes would raise tax rates for all income taxpayers; reinstate 
the marriage penalty on joint filers, and shrivel the popular child tax 
credit for middle-income tax payers.
  The article says that the Democratic tax increases would be used to 
provide universal health coverage and to rev up the economy. They 
actually believe raising taxes would rev up the economy.
  Moving on down the line, two Senators, Senator Kerry and Senator 
Lieberman, are on record suggesting raising some income tax brackets to 
pre-Bush levels. Senator Edwards called for raising some income tax 
brackets, and once again treating dividends as taxable income. Under 
his leadership, he would not only increase the newly lowered 15 percent 
capital gains rate; he would increase it to a whopping 25 percent.
  Mr. Speaker, it appears that the Democratic leadership's primary 
economic policy can be summed up in 2 words: tax increases.
  Fortunately, August must have been a painful month for those who lept 
on the tax increase bandwagon because today economists are finally 
giving credit to the President and the Republicans in Congress for 
passing tax relief and fueling economic growth. Tax relief, not tax 
increases, have revved up the economy. Critics of the tax relief 
legislation must be shocked to see that lower taxes are providing 
stimulus.
  Today we see a stock market on the rise. The NASDAQ closed at a 17-
month high. The Dow and the S&P 500 ended today at 15-month highs.
  The headlines are revealing: ``Manufacturing Index at an 8-Month 
High.''
  ``Chain Store Sales Rise.''
  ``Construction Spending Inches Up.''
  ``U.S. Growth Tops Forecasts.''
  ``Fed Says Economy Shows Gains.''
  ``Consumer Confidence Rises.''
  Mr. Speaker, the GDP, the broadest measure of the Nation's economy, 
grew

[[Page 21023]]

at 3.1 percent in the quarter. That is up 1.4 percent in previous 
quarters.
  Clearly, the signs are good and clearly the tax cuts are working. 
Now, there are sure to be some bumps in the road, but the facts are 
that relief is doing exactly what we said it would.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to speak on one other subject, a subject that our 
majority leader, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), came to the 
floor and talked about earlier today. He reaffirmed our commitment to 
control government spending, and I want to thank him for doing that. He 
knows that we provided tax relief to stimulate the economy, that we 
have attacked terrorism at its root and taken steps to improve the 
quality of life for our troops.
  Now is the time to direct attention to wasteful spending. Our 
freshman class has made its mission working on eliminating government 
waste, fraud and abuse. The momentum for true reform and reductions in 
spending are there. We have proved that tax cuts work, and we have the 
trust of the American People.

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