[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 24288]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 TAX RELIEF AND FISCAL DISCIPLINE ARE COMPLEMENTARY, NOT CONFLICTING, 
                               OBJECTIVES

  (Ms. HARRIS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. HARRIS. Mr. Speaker, as we enter a new Congress with the American 
people's mandate to extend tax relief and reduce the deficit, I wish to 
remind my colleagues of the following wisdom: ``Our true choice is not 
between tax reduction on the one hand and the avoidance of large 
Federal deficits on the other . . . It is a paradoxical truth that tax 
rates are far too high today and tax revenues are too low and the 
soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut rates 
now.''

                              {time}  0915

  Who articulated this simple but powerful case for the economic 
policies of this President and this Congress? Not George W. Bush. Not 
even Ronald Reagan. President John F. Kennedy made these remarks just a 
month and a half following the hottest moment of the Cold War, the 
Cuban Missile Crisis.
  Kennedy and Reagan launched two of the longest economic boons in 
American history by cutting taxes. They also increased Federal 
revenues, more than double during the decade of President Kennedy's 
across-the-board tax cuts, and more than 75 percent over the 10 years 
following President Reagan's Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981.
  But from 1981 to 1991, Federal spending increased a whopping 95 
percent. Thus, the deficit quadrupled because of runaway government 
spending, not because the American people got to keep more of their 
hard-earned money.
  Once again, we have arrived at the moment of truth. This time, we 
cannot make excuses for the failure to restrain spending. This time, 
our philosophy of low taxes and limited government is on the line. This 
time, let us show the American people that tax relief and fiscal 
discipline are complementary, not conflicting objectives.

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