Date: 1982-07-28
Speaker: PHILIP M. CRANE (republican)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. first of all let me address a point on this constitutional issue. We had. back on November 8 of 1979. a similar kind of debate on this floor and our distinguished colleague from Ohio because of an amendment that was attached to a bill that had come out of this body. proposed that we pursue the remedy to that that the gentleman from California (Mr. RousSELOT) attempted earlier to do. The gentleman from Ohio was Quite eloquent in preparIng his case and my distinguished ranking minority member on the Committee on Ways and Means joined in that battle. along with some of the other colleagues on our side. The gentleman from Michigan was equally eloquent in insisting that article I. section 7. of the Constitution be observed. because the Senate had infringed on the prerogatives of the House. Now. a lot of folks here perhaps do not know the origin of that House prerogative. but I guarantee you that the whole history of liberty in representative governments has rested upon that power being vested in the body of the people. that power to impose selftaxation. The Founding Fathers understood very clearly why they put that power in our hands and we cannot in good conscience abdicate that responsibility. I am opposed to any taxes. I will admit that freely. I voted againsc the budget. I am not bound to support any tax bill and I think it is the wrong economic medicine. Moreover. I think the White House is wrong and I think the Senate is wrong. But that is not the issue that is involved here tonight. because what you are being asked to do is to violate the oath of office you took to solemnly uphold that Constitution. so help you God. That language is explicit. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives. In article VI of the Constitution it says the Senators and Representatives of the United States shall be bound by oath to support this Constitution. This is a precious body. Of all the bodies of our National Government. whether you take the White House. the Supreme Court. or the U.S. Senate. this is far and away the most important body and that is why the Founding Fathers wisely vested in this body the power to tax the people. It gives the people the chance to throw all of us out over Just such issues as taxes. Selftaxation enabled the people to wrest power. in British history. from monarchs who abused power. We have people in the executive branch today who are abusing power and yet we are passively letting that transpire. when we have a constitutional obligation to uphold the rights of this body. Thomas Jefferson said. "We will bind the Members down with the chains of the Constitution." He said that because so frequently People have dealt with vital issues frivolously and lost their freedom in the name of expediency and pragmatism. I urge all of you to examine your consciences on this question of that solemn oath you took on this most fundamental constitutional issue. Whether you support taxes or you disagree with taxes. for goodness sakes. at least adhere to what we solemnly took oath to support. namely. the Constitution of the United States. Do it properly. Do you want to establish the credibility of Members of Congress? Do you want to act in a responsible way? Do you want t build up the confidence of the people? The way you do that is to uphold the oath of office that we all took and we are all morally bound to observe.