Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., the Senate leadership's choice to lead a working group charged with explaining the Republican tax proposal to the public, took to the Senate floor today to do just that.
The following is his complete statement.
ENZI STATEMENT REGARDING PRESIDENT BUSH'S TAX RELIEF PACKAGE
FEBRUARY 6, 2001
It is always an exciting day when an accountant gets to talk about taxes. The American people have had concerns over taxes for a long time. If you were to throw that into a list of things about which they were concerned, it would probably come out at the top. Do they think there will be tax relief? I ran into a song written by a guy named Roger Miller. It probably sums up the trust that people have in the federal government giving them tax relief and it goes like this, "Well you dad gum government you sorry so and sos. You got your hand in every pocket of my clothes. You dad gum, dad gum, dad gum government. Well you dad gum government you sorry rack e frach its. You got an itch and you want me to scratch it, you dad gum government."
I rise today in support of President Bush's Relief proposal. It is time to Axe the Tax and cut it down to size. I applaud President Bush in acknowledging that the surplus revenue is a tax overcharge. It is time to stop the overcharge and return the money to the American people!
Americans deserve tax relief. Right now, federal taxes are the highest they have ever been in America during peacetime. American's pay more in taxes than they spend on food, clothing and housing combined. Most people work more than four months each year just to fund the government. It is time for the federal government to get its hands out of Americans' pockets and allow them to keep more of their own money.
President Bush has proposed tax relief for everyone. That's right, if you pay taxes now, you will receive tax relief under President Bush's proposal. As an example, a family of four which earns $50,000 a year will receive tax relief of $1,600. This represents a 50% tax reduction in what these families are paying right now.
Now, I can tell you that $1,600 will go a long way in my home state of Wyoming. For most folks, that will pay for one or even two months worth of mortgage payments. It would cover one year's worth of gasoline for two cars for many families. It would cover the costs of one year's tuition at many community colleges. It would cover the cost of groceries for four months for many families in my state. Most importantly, President Bush and the Republican Congress trust the American people themselves to spend their own money as they see fit.
President Bush's tax relief will simplify the tax code while providing relief for ALL Americans. It replaces the current five rates with four lower rates of 10, 15, 25, and 33 percent. As such, this tax rebate legislation takes an important step in simplifying our terribly complex tax code while allowing ALL taxpayers to keep more of their own money. Instead of attempting to pick winners and losers, this tax plan honors the contribution of ALL Americans and recognizes that they can spend their own money better than the federal government. We don't want a tax plan that attempts to pick winners and losers. Beware of the tax plan that starts out with "don't give any money to the rich, just give it to the poor. " You will find that under the definition of rich, anyone who pays taxes is considered rich and will not get money back. Watch the wording. Watch the details. We cannot have a bill that attempts to pick winners and losers and makes tax relief a lottery, particularly a lottery that includes those who do not pay taxes. The President's tax plan honors the contributions of all American taxpayers and recognizes they can spend their own money better than the federal government can. In addition to a simplified, lower rate structure, President Bush's tax proposal will benefit families by doubling the child credit from $500 per year to $1,000 a year. It lowers the marriage penalty and it eliminates the death tax. This is a tax policy that puts its money where its mouth is. The current tax code punishes marriage and savings. The Bush tax proposal rewards marriage, parenting and savings. This plan recognizes the enormous burdens that many families are under and it provides some hard-earned relief for each and every taxpaying family in the United States by returning to them part of the tax overcharge that has made the historical surplus possible. While this tax relief proposal will benefit all taxpaying Americans, it especially helps middle class families who are the backbone of our economy. Those receiving the largest percentage reduction in their federal income taxes will be those in the middle class. For example, a family of four earning $75,000 a year will see their federal taxes reduced by 25%. That same family of four earning $50,000 a year will benefit from a 50% tax reduction. If a family of four earns $35,000 a year, they will pay no federal income taxes under President Bush's proposal. Mr. President, this tax proposal is part of a three pronged strategy to save Social Security, pay down the debt, and return a portion of the tax overpayment to the people responsible for it- the American taxpayers. For decades, the Democrat-controlled Congress spent the Social Security surplus on a variety of different programs. Under a Republican-controlled Congress, the Social Security surplus is being protected for present and future retirees. It is now time to use a portion of the non-Social Security tax overcharge and return it to the American people. There are those on the Democratic side of the aisle who say we can't afford tax relief for Americans because we need to spend the money to pay down the federal debt. If I really thought they were serious about this, I might be more inclined to listen to them. The problem is, in the four years I've been here, I haven't seen any of their actions back up this rhetoric. I have been working with my colleagues Senators Allard, Voinovich, and others to actually implement a policy that ensures we pay off the entire publicly-held debt regardless of whether all the budget surplus numbers materialize. Guess how many Democratic cosponsors we've had for these proposals? Zero. Our Democratic friends love to talk about debt reduction when it comes time to vote on a tax cut, but their enthusiasm disappears as soon as the next appropriations bill hits the floor and they envision a thousand new ways to spend that same surplus. They say, 'don't lock us into $1.6 trillion of tax relief. Don't lock us into that.' Do you know what spending does? Spending locks the American taxpayer into an eternal debt. Do you ever see Congress stop a program? Do you ever see spending on a program held at the same level? Programs continue -- every program gets an increase. We talk about how the cost of living is going up and we better spend more on that program to cover additional costs. We expect to increase program spending on that basis. The evaluation isn't whether the program is good or not working. So every time a dime of the American tax payer's money is spent on a new program, that dime is obligated year in and year out for their generation, and generations to come. Tax relief isn't locked in quite that well. As people have noticed when they have had their taxes raised in previous years. A tax raise can happen. Tax raises happen more
often than spending cuts. So think twice when you hear the rhetoric about locking in a tax cut. Those using this rhetoric are likely saying it with the hope of putting your tax money into new programs. There is also talk about the need to reduce payroll taxes. The Bush plan reduces payroll taxes. It reduces the portion that is income tax. It does not yet deal with the portion of the payroll tax that funds Social Security or Medicare. Those are two programs funded separate from the federal income tax. Those are two programs that must be reformed. To make statements on the floor that we are going to reduce those payroll taxes without putting reform in place says that we don't care about the future of Social Security or Medicare. We do. We need the reform. The payroll taxes that involve Medicare and Social Security have to be taken into consideration as part of that reform. The rich versus the poor. That's an attempt to start class warfare. The right idea is to relieve the tax burden of every taxpayer. Now you will see things thrown into the rhetoric that will give tax relief to those who do not pay taxes. To me, the surplus is a tax overcharge. That's like going to the store and buying something and being overcharged. Now when that happens and somebody discovers it, I kind of expect them to pay it back to me. I don't expect them to pay it back to somebody that just happened to walk through the store. That's what we are talking about with some of the tax proposals being talked about, those that don't include all tax payers or people who don't pay taxes to start with. What we need to remember is that the surplus is not some magical pot of money created by those in Washington. It is an overpayment of taxes by the American people. It is only fair that we return a portion of that overcharge to those who gave us this surplus in the first place. My experience has been if we don't give a large portion of this surplus back, we will see it disappear in the waning days of the Congress as we feed the unquenchable appetite of ravenous appropriations bills. We should return the surplus and do so in a way that benefits ALL taxpaying Americans. Now, how do appropriations bills affect you? When we are voting on appropriations here, we are spending a small part of the American tax payers' dollar on each and every proposal. I think the American taxpayer realizes if you spend enough of their quarters you have used all of their tax money. That's about what they put into a single program, 25 cents. The American rather than rely on the unique knowledge that 100 of us have here, and 435 have on the other end of the building, would like to keep more of their quarters to spend as they see fit. That's what the tax relief package does. We also have a unique opportunity to simplify. Complexity is a tax burden. It is a tax burden for individuals. That's the number one thing that the national tax payer advocates have pointed out. Complexity is the number one problem. The number two problem is how complex it is for small business, which is also a problem for a lot of individuals trying to earn a living out there. Mr. President, it is time to Axe the Tax and cut it down to size! We need tax relief and we need it now. President Bush's tax proposal is fair, responsible, and will benefit ALL American taxpayers. This tax plan will create jobs, spur economic growth, and support families in their essential task of raising children. Let's return the tax overcharge and give the American people tax relief NOW!
