Dana Rohrabacher: “Mr. Speaker, it has been long observed that a frog thrown into a pot of boiling water will jump right out, but throw a…”

“Mr. Speaker, it has been long observed that a frog thrown into a pot of boiling water will jump right out, but throw a frog into a pot of tepid water and then slowly turn up the heat under the pot, and the frog will stay there until he is cooked. That boiled frog strategy is how Congress imposed a monstrous tax burden on the American people. Congress did not wake up one day and then pass a law that confiscates more than 20 percent of an American family's income, which is exactly how much in Federal taxes the American people are paying. Many people are paying more than 20 percent. But the heat was turned up on the American taxpayer over the last six decades. That is how we got to this position. In 1934 the Federal Government took just 5 percent of an American family's income. Because of the increase in Federal taxes that we have seen, because that increase has been gradual, the American people have gone along just treading water while the heat was turned up. It made it even easier for Congress to increase taxes on the people, turning up the heat on the people all the time. This has come to a point today where our freedom is threatened by the level of taxation that our people have to bear. We are now at a level of taxation that is totally inconsistent with what our Founding Fathers had in mind and what our Founding Fathers believed was consistent with a free society.”