Bob Schaffer: “when we listen to our constituents, as the gentleman from Arizona mentioned a little earlier, our constituents will tell…”

“when we listen to our constituents, as the gentleman from Arizona mentioned a little earlier, our constituents will tell us and help us to understand how important this issue is. I want to share with my colleagues a letter I received from a woman in Fort Morgan, Colorado. She said, ``Since Republicans gained control of the House and Senate in 1994, my husband and I have been eagerly looking forward to some kind of tax reduction.'' And she said this January she is going to be retiring early. Her biggest concern, number one urgent need, is further tax relief to allow her and her husband to do some better financial planning and to deal with the situation that is about to change in their lives. Mr. Speaker, I brought a stack of letters from constituents back home and over and over and over again these constituents tell us that the upwards of 40 percent of taxes, when we consider the Federal, State and local taxes and when we consider the cost of regulation on top of that, the cost of being an American citizen is well over 50 percent of income. By no one's definition can that be regarded as being fair.”