Barney Frank: “I am glad that the gentleman is being consistent. He is not only being consistent, he is being unique, because while it…”

“I am glad that the gentleman is being consistent. He is not only being consistent, he is being unique, because while it is encouraging to some, I thought increasing the gasoline tax was a useful thing to do to help us reduce the deficit in a socially responsible way, the Committee on the Judiciary does not have jurisdiction over it. I will say as I read the Republican program for the year, with $1.6 trillion worth of tax reduction, they could not find room in there to reduce the gasoline tax. So the Republicans did not think it was a good idea to raise the gasoline tax in 1993, but now that they have complete control over both Houses of Congress and the White House, they are leaving it alone. They have decided, apparently, on second thought, that it was not such a bad idea after all. Regarding the taxes that people pay on their Social Security benefits, including those that Ronald Reagan asked us to pass in 1983, Ronald Reagan said, if one is making $25,000 a year or more, we are going to tax 50 percent of your Social Security benefits. That is not a huge amount of money, but that is what Ronald Reagan said. I voted against that bill. Many of my Republican colleagues who are still here voted for it; some Democrats voted for it as well. I had heard that denounced until the Republicans had the power to do something about it, and that is another one which has grown on them.”