William Tauzin: “I want to also remind the gentleman, we are beginning a debate around America on the whole issue of how we collect…”

“I want to also remind the gentleman, we are beginning a debate around America on the whole issue of how we collect Federal taxes in this country. Just to point out to him that this growing trade deficit is not due to one cause, but it is not unaffected by the fact that because we collect income taxes on America, which we cannot exempt from our exports, and we cannot apply to imports, and income taxes themselves add somewhere between 10 and 25 percent to the cost of every American export and every American product we try to consume in this country. Whereas, foreign products come in now more and more tax free, under GATT and NAFTA, they come in from countries that exempt their consumer taxes on them so that they can compete unfairly with good old American workers and American products. And if there is one thing that is driving me around this country in this national debate over taxes, it is this problem; that our Tax Code punishes an American for buying a product made in America, and rewards us for buying something made overseas. We ought to do something about changing that.”