Paul Coverdell: “That tax increase created a 4.3-cent per gallon gas tax increase levied on all Americans. Once again, when we heard the…”

“That tax increase created a 4.3-cent per gallon gas tax increase levied on all Americans. Once again, when we heard the debate to impose the tax increase, which was only passed by one vote, the Vice President casting the deciding vote here in the Chamber late in August 1993, it was just supposed to affect the wealthy. But a 4.3-cent-gallon tax affects every farmer, trucker, every family, every carpool, every business--everyone. Under the provisions of that tax increase, senior citizens making as little as $34,000 a year--I guess that is another rich person--found their taxes hiked as a result of a 70-percent increase in the taxable portion of their Social Security benefits. We all can hear people on the other side of the aisle talking about their concern for protecting Social Security benefits. One of the first things the administration did was to tax them. Small businesses were clobbered by the Clinton tax hike. More than 80 percent of small businesses file their returns as individuals. As a result, small businesses were forced to pay the higher individual rates of up to 44.5 percent.”