[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 64 (Tuesday, April 18, 2023)] [House] [Pages H1790-H1795] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-18
Chamber: HOUSE
Mr. BIGGS: I thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter) for yielding. I appreciate his leadership on this issue. I was thinking as you were talking about the first job I ever had. I was making--this is really going to date me--I was making $2.50 an hour. I thought, holy mackerel, that is $100. I was working 40 hours and I was going to bring home $100. No, it was $75. That was a million years ago. I would bring home less today because everything else has gone up. I will just tell you something about that. I have watched that same thing happen to each one of my children. We live in this world where the Federal Government kind of clamps down on you. I appreciate this so much. The FairTax Act would repeal all Federal taxes, corporate taxes, individual income taxes, payroll taxes, self-employment taxes, capital gains taxes, death taxes, and gift taxes and replace them with a revenue neutral consumption tax. Do you know what is so nice about a consumption tax? You choose whether you are going to pay it. You choose whether you are going to pay it because it is how you consume. We pay too much already in Federal taxes, and under this administration we are paying silent taxes we never voted for. Since this administration took over, Americans are paying nearly 15 percent more for goods and services due to the inflation tax. I have introduced legislation, and I know others have as well, to repeal the 16th Amendment to permanently abolish the Federal income tax. This is a fantastic bill that Mr. Carter has. I don't need to remind you that the Federal Government takes up to 37 percent away from families--away from your dinner tables, away from your gas tank, and pays for drag shows in Ecuador, and $85,000 Bob Dylan statues, for Pete's sake. Americans know how to spend their own money better than politicians do. Under the FairTax Act everybody is going to take home 100 percent of their paycheck with no Federal taxes withheld. Americans would decide how much they pay in taxes through the choices they make to purchase and consume goods and services. That means that Americans would keep their entire paycheck they worked for and have the freedom to decide how they spend their money.  Flat taxes are sometimes criticized as disproportionately affecting lower-income Americans negatively, but the FairTax Act accounts for that by preparing a prebate. This prebate is an advance tax refund to every legal American family at the beginning of every month to purchase goods and services free up to the national poverty level. That has been compared, quite frankly, to the earned income tax credit, which is part of our Byzantine structure today. When I was in my first year in law school--this was also 100 years ago--this is back before the internet and back when I worked for a tax firm, I was their librarian. Every week I went in and for hours I updated a room full of tax books--the regulations and the code itself being updated all the time as Congress would decide who gets a special break and who doesn't. The FairTax Act, instead, encourages economic growth. It is more efficient and more productive than our current tax code. This means investment, wages, and consumption are higher than they are under the current income tax. In light of the Democrat majority in Congress and the Biden administration, both of which have made clear their policies are to tax, spend, and control the American people, the FairTax Act provides the perfect alternative that gives Americans more freedom. Without a national income tax there would be no need to file taxes or have an IRS, which this bill defunds. You had me at hello with that. In addition to closing the many loopholes in the current tax code, the FairTax Act would reach a much larger group of taxpayers, which nine States have already seen the benefits of firsthand by eliminating their State income taxes. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Carter for letting me speak on behalf of his bill. I think it is a wonderful bill, and I support it. I encourage all of my colleagues to support this bill.