Amory Houghton: “I know there is a lot of emotion on this. But I would like to speak on the other side of this issue. On May 25 of this…”

“I know there is a lot of emotion on this. But I would like to speak on the other side of this issue. On May 25 of this year, just before we left for the Memorial Day break, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett) offered a 527 amendment to the telephone tax repeal. I understand what he was getting at. We are all trying to accomplish the same thing. But it was a curious proposal. It would repeal the telephone tax for everyone except for political organizations that do not comply with the new disclosure requirements. So the end result would be, at the end of the day, if section 527 organizations were willing to pay a 3 percent phone tax, they could avoid disclosure. I do not think that was in the spirit of what we were trying to do. Today the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett) is proposing still something else. Though we are trying to repeal the estate and gift tax, we keep it on the books for section 527 organizations. These proposals bother me. They only attack part of the problem.”