[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4727]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            DIVIDEND TAX CUT

  (Mr. BEAUPREZ asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BEAUPREZ. Mr. Speaker, in coming days and weeks, this body will 
take up issues of economic growth and taxation fairness. The President 
has suggested the elimination of the tax on dividends, a tax paid of 
course by investors, half of which I am told are senior citizens, 
treated as ordinary income.
  This tax is rightly referred to as a double tax because companies 
that pay dividends have already been subjected to a corporate income 
tax. Thus 60 percent or more of every dollar of business profit, when 
taxed both at the corporate and personal level, could end up in the 
Federal tax bucket.
  This seems excessive. It seems unfair. It seems a penalty on success. 
This is clearly a disincentive to capital investment which is critical, 
of course, to job creation; capital investment, which declined for 
eight consecutive quarters of our battered economy.
  Mr. Speaker, I am certain every Member of this body is committed to 
more job availability for Americans, especially now. Elimination of the 
dividend tax would be an incentive for capital investment which is 
necessary for job creation.
  Let us do American workers a favor and eliminate the dividend tax 
now.

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