Joel Hefley: “Mr. Speaker, Tip O'Neill once made the statement, Tip O'Neill, the long-time Speaker of the House here in this Chamber…”

“Mr. Speaker, Tip O'Neill once made the statement, Tip O'Neill, the long-time Speaker of the House here in this Chamber made the statement, and I quote directly, ``God, I love big government.'' If my colleagues adhere to that philosophy, then they do not want this amendment. But if my colleagues want a smaller government, a less intrusive government, a less expensive government, this amendment needs to be passed. It should not be easy to raise taxes and it is far too easy to do that now. Mr. Speaker, I have listened to some of the comments coming from the other side on this issue and they keep telling us that we should not make it harder for Congress to raise taxes for the sake of the people. Do not do it because it would hurt seniors and Social Security. Do not do it because too many children are smoking. Do not do it because there are too many people out there that need our help. Always reasons to take more of the people's hard-earned money because we seem to know a better way to spend it than they do. A great deal of my colleagues seem to think that if the Nation has a problem, we should simply raise taxes to solve it. They still do not understand that in so many cases higher taxes is the problem. If we allow every American to keep more of their own money, lower taxes could make seniors and future retirees less reliant on the Federal Government and Social Security.”