Frank Riggs: “first of all, I want to point out to my colleagues, since I was preceded by one of my colleagues from California, that…”

“first of all, I want to point out to my colleagues, since I was preceded by one of my colleagues from California, that according to economists, motorists in California, Texas, Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania bear the brunt of the Clinton Democratic gas tax increase. The total cost of the Clinton Democratic gas tax increase to Californians is nearly $550 million a year. I think it also bears mentioning that when the 1993 Clinton Democratic budget and tax plan first came out of this House, it contained an even broader energy tax, the so-called Btu tax increase, on every single American motorist and household. So if Members are going to stand up and talk about the gas tax repeal, they should at least take a stand on principle; say that they support the tax increase they imposed on the American people. They should stand by the principle today and not try to waffle all over the place and equivocate and say, well, I might vote against it because I am not sure that the repeal is actually going to be passed on to the American motorist. Mr. Speaker, I want to introduce into the Record letters, actually they are press releases, from the big three oil companies, Chevron, Texaco and Arco, all indicating that they intend to pass the gas tax repeal directly through to the consumer. Arco's headline: Arco will immediately reduce total gasoline price if 4.3 Federal gas tax is eliminated. Texaco says the same thing.…”