Date: 1996-06-13
Speaker: SAM JOHNSON (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. is your tax bill too high? Do you worry about paying your bills. Hardly a day goes by without a call or letter from a constituent or a friend telling me how they struggle from day to day to make ends meet and how they worry about their future and their childrens future. It is wrong. simply wrong. that so many families are working harder and longer. but continue to have less and less to show for it. I have to wonder why more- people are working two jobs and why more families are forced to have both parents work. -yet everyone has less money in their pockets. I have the aniwerits the Washington tax trap. The longer and harder you work. the more taxes you pay. The more taxes you owe. The bottom line is that Washington ends up with more. and you end up with less. Think about what the tax trap has done to society. to families. and to working parents. When I was a child. the largest investment most families made was in their home. Guess what. -now its paying their tax bill. In 1950. taxes took just a fraction of our income. Today. almost half of what you earn goes to the Government. Half. That is more than a person spends on food. clothing. and shelter combined. The tax trap is punishing working parents who are trying to balance career and family. and the children who are in daycare because both parents have to work are feeling the pain of high taxes. In the America that I grew up in. if you worked hard and played by the rules. you still had enough money left over from your paycheck to put something away for the future. and enough for those little extras that made life special. That was the American dream. The American dream was also about making a better life for the next generationso that children would have more opportunities. more choices. and be better off than their parents. But now. for the first time in our history. an entire generation of Americans is losing hope and confidence in the future. And all blame for this uncertain future lies right here in Washington. For decades. Washington. DC has told America that everything is OK--dont worry. Washington can solve all of your problems. But at the same time Washington has been spending our childrens inheritance and creating a national debt that now undermines our future. For too long. Washington has increased the debt by spending more than it takes in. to pay for a growing bureaucracya bureaucracy that includes 160 different job training programs. 240 education programs. 300 economic development programs. and 500 urban aid programs. A bureaucracy that pays over 1.900 union employees at the Social Security Administration using money from the Social Security trust fund. How does Washington afford all this? By taking more of the money that you earn. Take Bill Clinton. He wasnt in office 100 days before attempting to raise taxes. By comparison. Republicans spent their first 100 days trying to cut taxes. After all. it is your money. Three years ago. against unanimous Republican opposition. Bill Clinton. forgot that it was your money. and imposed the largest tax hike in American history. I want to knowwhat is so wrong about asking Washington to live within its means? What is so wrong about demanding that Washington not spend extravagantly at the expense of our children? Is it fair to punish working families who are trying to save for the future? Its time to end the tax trap and give the American family some welldeserved tax relief. But. I dont want to stop there. Our entire tax system needs an overhaul. The current system is economically destructive. impossibly complex. overly intrusive. unprincipled. dishonest. unfair. and inefficient. We need to look toward the future and develop a tax system that will make that future a success. And I dont care if it is a flat tax. a sales tax. a round tax. or a square taxI just want it to be based on the principles of freedom. That is. it must be fair and simple. reduce bureaucracy. encourage savings and -investment. be efficient. drive the economy. create opportunity for all. and put more money in your pocket. Americans dont want. dont need. and dont deserve an intrusive IRS any longer. America was made great because we. as a Nation. strived hard. sacrificed often and worked together to be the best. And we will continue to be a great Nation if we embrace a vision that will abandon the failed systems of the past and be led by the opportunities of the future. With this vision we can enact policies that encourage economic growth. raise wages. promote savings. and return hope and optimism to every American. Unending dreams and limitless possibilites- -thats what the American dream is all about. Its up to us to take it back. It is our destiny.