[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5540]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     REFLECTIONS ON TAX FREEDOM DAY

  (Mr. HULTGREN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HULTGREN. Mr. Speaker, for my neighbors and friends back home in 
Illinois, and families across the country, today is Tax Freedom Day, 
the date after which the average American worker will finally start 
earning money for themselves after working just to pay their Federal, 
State, and local tax obligations in 2013, meaning it takes all of the 
wages earned by the average worker from January 1 to April 18 just to 
pay off this year's tax debt. Pretty astounding.
  To put it in perspective, back in 1900, Tax Freedom Day was January 
22, when taxes amounted to 5.9 percent of a person's income. Today that 
figure has grown to 29.4 percent.
  We've come a long way in the past century, digging deeper and deeper 
into the pockets of hardworking men and women in America, and digging 
ourselves deeper into debt in the process.
  The tax reform component of the budget this House passed in March 
would take a major step forward, allowing families to keep more of the 
money they earn and making government more accountable.
  Let's finish the job this year.

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