Roy Blunt: “here we are to talk about repealing a tax that was put on in 1898 to fight the Spanish-American War. We thought the war…”

“here we are to talk about repealing a tax that was put on in 1898 to fight the Spanish-American War. We thought the war lasted 8 months. I used to teach history at high school and then later at college, and I suggested that was one of our quickest wars, only to find out as we look at how many dollars have been collected on this tax over the years that in any measure of dollars, the Spanish-American War turned out to be the most expensive war in the country's history; $5 billion collected last year in a tax that was put on in 1898 to fight the Spanish-American War. Of course, it was a tax on only the rich, because in 1898 only the rich had telephones. Now it is a tax on the people whose telephone is the lifeline of their life. It is a tax on people who use the telephone only for the most basic necessity, because it is a tax on the local service only. If you are on a fixed income, if you are a senior citizen, if you have a telephone to call your family, to call the doctor, to make an emergency call, if you never make a long distance call, if you try to pay only the smallest amount you can possibly pay and have a telephone, you pay this tax. Because we have a surplus, because we have balanced the budget, the old arguments of we need this money, how would we replace it, what program would we cut, no longer work. This is a reaction to what can happen when you show fiscal responsibility.”