Cliff Stearns: “I will bet most Americans would be surprised to realize that they are rich. To accomplish this amazing feat, the Clinton…”

“I will bet most Americans would be surprised to realize that they are rich. To accomplish this amazing feat, the Clinton administration has formulated a new exercise in wordspeak that simply defines a significant portion of all Americans as rich. But, frankly, most Americans probably do not feel rich. Most probably rely on two incomes, have a couple of children, a lot of bills to pay and, in fact, feel very far from being rich. But, more than anything else, Madam Speaker, they deserve a tax break today. Well, why should the White House have any interest in inventing a new measurement of wealth? Well, it is actually quite simple. In order for the administration to score political points at the expense of hard-working middle-class Americans, they must create millions of wealthy taxpayers where none exist. For decades, American taxpayers have paid taxes based upon the adjusted gross income, the AGI. The AGI is a rather simple and straightforward calculation of earnings. It is at the bottom of the first page of everyone's tax return. Perhaps the AGI is too simple for the White House, for they have worked diligently over the recent past to prejudice the AGI and with it the tax package that the President initiated. They have done everything in their power to modify and create a new formula to calculate the supposed wealth of American taxpayers today.”