Pete Stark: “Many years ago distinguished legislators, Senator Humphrey and Congressman Hawkins, had the Humphrey-Hawkins bill which…”

“Many years ago distinguished legislators, Senator Humphrey and Congressman Hawkins, had the Humphrey-Hawkins bill which was to deal with unemployment and the right of all Americans to participate in our economy and the largest that this country has to offer. We have had success. Currently unemployment and inflation are low, and the average wages are rising; productivity is growing, and there is cause to celebrate. These economic gains were due largely to the policies of the last 7 years. But we may have met the numeric targets of Humphrey and Hawkins, but we still have a lot to do to meet the overreaching goals which the Joint Economic Committee is charged with researching and analyzing. Despite the prosperity that we have experienced, the average after-tax income of the wealthiest families grows faster than that for all Americans. Some of my colleagues would like to argue that the Tax Code should not be used to redistribute income to the poor, and I will buy that; but we should also stop using the Tax Code to redistribute income to the rich, such as we have been doing. Today, 2 million or 3 million people took home as much after-tax income as 100 million people in the lowest 38 percent of our population combined. That does not seem right. We have been ignoring these 100 million people. It has led us to some serious problems.”