III

105TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. RES. 74

To commend the budget deficit reduction and tax relief for working families

that has occurred under the Clinton Administration and to urge the

Republican Congressional majority to take up without delay a budget

resolution, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

APRIL 15, 1997

Mr. DORGAN (for Mr. DASCHLE) submitted the following resolution; which

was referred jointly pursuant to the order of August 4, 1977, as modified

by the order of April 11, 1986, to the Committees on the Budget and

Government Affairs, with instructions that if one Committee reports, the

other Committee have thirty days to report or be discharged.

RESOLUTION

To commend the budget deficit reduction and tax relief for

working families that has occurred under the Clinton

Administration and to urge the Republican Congressional

majority to take up without delay a budget resolution,

and for other purposes.

Whereas the United States economy continues to expand at

a brisk pace after 6 consecutive years of economic

growth;

Whereas unemployment and inflation continue to remain at

the lowest combined rate in 30 years;
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•SRES 74 IS

Whereas median family income is experiencing its fastest

growth since the 1960s;

Whereas taxes as a percentage of gross domestic product are

lower in the United States, at 31.7 percent, than in any

of the Group of Seven industrialized countries, the average for which is 36.5 percent;

Whereas according to the Congressional Budget Office, Federal taxes as a share of national income were 19.4 percent, the same level as in 1969, and are projected to fall

to 18.8 percent in 2002, not including any tax cuts which

Congress may yet enact this year;

Whereas according to the Congressional Budget Office, the

total Federal effective tax rate, including income, payroll,

and excise taxes, for a family making $40,000 per year

averages 19 percent, of which only 6 percent is attributable to individual income taxes, the lowest of any of the

major industrialized countries;

Whereas the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has calculated that the typical American generates the income

necessary to pay his or her annual Federal personal income tax by January 20th of each year;

Whereas strong economic growth, low inflation and unemployment, and declining tax burdens on typical American

families have been achieved at the same time that the

Federal budget deficit has been reduced by nearly twothirds;

Whereas every Republican Senator voted against the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, which cut the

deficit by 63 percent, lowered interest rates, stimulated

job creation, and boosted gains in personal income;
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•SRES 74 IS

Whereas the 1993 budget legislation cut taxes on 15,000,000

workers and their families (40,000,000 Americans) and

made 90 percent of small businesses eligible for corporate

tax reductions;

Whereas President Clinton has submitted to Congress a

budget proposal that would further reduce taxes on working families, including tax credits and deductions designed to make post-secondary education and training

more affordable;

Whereas the Congressional Budget Office has certified that

the President’s budget proposal would eliminate the fiscal

deficit by 2002, achieving the first budgetary surplus in

the United States since 1969;

Whereas the principal budget legislation offered in the 105th

Congress by the Republican majority would make it more

difficult to balance the budget by extending

$526,000,000,000 of tax cuts over the next 10 years,

more than an estimated three-quarters of which would

benefit the best-off 20 percent of taxpayers rather than

middle class working families;

Whereas as many Americans rush to submit their income tax

returns to the Internal Revenue Service by April 15, Congress is poised to miss its own April 15 deadline to pass

a budget resolution because the Republican majority in

the 105th Congress has emphasized symbolic political

gestures in connection with the Federal budget rather

than the bipartisan construction of legislation to eliminate the deficit; and

Whereas the continuing failure by the Republican majority to

advance a budget resolution has the effect of withholding

from middle class Americans the tax cuts proposed for
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•SRES 74 IS

them by the President, undermining progress toward a

balanced budget, and denying the economy the benefit of

the lower long-term interest rates that a balanced budget

would promote: Now, therefore, be it

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that the

2 Republican majority should take up without delay a budg3 et resolution that balances the budget by 2002, targets

4 its tax relief on working and middle class families to the

5 same degree as the President’s budget proposal, and pro6 tects important domestic priorities such as medicare, med7 icaid, education, and the environment.

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