JOHN LINDER

If you really want to help working families move up that ladder, you have to deal with the payroll Tax Code.

Businesses do not pay taxes, they collect taxes from other entities and pass them along. I think we should be honest about that.

ATMs ran out of cash, so now we have no idea how those funds were spent, but I suspect many can guess. The Subcommittee on Welfare, on which I serve, recently had a hearing on this fund. One witness noted taxpayers already spend an…

I feel rude trying to inject some fact into this kabuki theater, but I am going to try: 85 percent of America is insured; 95 percent of those people are happy with their insurance. The other 15 percent uninsured, they consume 70 percent on…

I simply cannot support the creation of a new entitlement that would send another $8.5 billion in unpaid-for Federal spending out the door.

As a matter of fact, I was in the Chair and I was accused of shutting down the vote while people were in the well seeking to vote. And the next day the C-SPAN tapes proved you were wrong and I was right. The people coming in to vote were…

Wealthy people pay taxes on personal consumption, and wealth has no meaning unless it is spent on personal consumption. If I had $100 million and lived in a $20,000 home and drove a used car, that $100 million would mean nothing to me. So…

You told it to me once. It is the difference between someone who is a big believer and a fanatic.

My daughter at 35, she is now 37, called me and she said what in the world is AMT. She has got four little boys and the deductions and a fairly decent income gets them into the AMT. When it was set in 1969, it captured 90,000 taxpayers. In…

The average income earner pays a 28 percent withholding tax and 7.65 percent, their share of the payroll tax. Their increase in take-home pay would be about 55 percent the next day.

That is right. So the consumer of that small business not only pays the $100 plus the payroll tax, it also pays the $724.

Whatever you choose to do, it is your money. You made it, and you spend it, and you can spend it anonymously without having to go to the government.

I want a system where nobody in the government knows how much you make or how you make it or how you spend it. I want a system that funds us at the current level, consistently, but does not keep track of us and will give you the privilege…

I guess it is too much for people to read the 132-page bill. We get rid of the payroll tax, we do not leave it in place, and there is simply no tax on farmers. It is only on personal consumption, and the Farm Bureau is very close to…

I urge the House to approve this rule in order to give the House the opportunity to consider the merits of the underlying legislation. This bill permanently extends the full $1,000 child tax credit that the Congress and the Bush…

When the Republican transition occurred in December of 1994, I was charged with the responsibility of interviewing people and finding hires for the top five positions in the House, and one of those was Parliamentarian. I frankly came at it…

Let me close with one point, and that is 47 percent of America does not pay any income taxes today. They pay payroll taxes, but we have a huge bias that is a dangerous bias in my judgment because people who do not pay taxes are…

Their own study, because the gentleman and I have met with them, shows the economy will grow faster under this system than the current system.

If we could lower the cost of production in Florida of fruits and vegetables by 15 percent, Latin America could not compete with us. If we could lower it by 20 percent, we would blow them out of town.

My understanding is, and the gentleman from Georgia could tell better than me, we spend about $34 billion a year on the earned income tax credit. The reason it was put into place many years ago was to relieve people at lower income…

The average income-earner, paying the 28 percent withholding and their share of the 8 percent of the payroll tax, would have a 56 percent increase in take-home pay the next day.

The 23 percent was calculated in 1995, and since we have had significant tax cuts since then, it may be less than 23 percent. We have to go back to the committees that the gentleman deals with on the Committee on Ways and Means to have new…

The gentleman was on the floor when this happened and knows that we tried to explain at the time that the amendment to the rule was effectively a striking amendment that said that, if the rule passes as amended, in no way will any…

The adoption of the rule will put in place limiting language that will prevent any expansion of those benefits.