David Thomas: “Mr. Speaker, it just seems to me sometimes we get carried away in our speeches, because we try to get people to believe…”

“Mr. Speaker, it just seems to me sometimes we get carried away in our speeches, because we try to get people to believe that the real world does not work the way the real world works. You have heard a number of my colleagues, the most recent one on this side of the aisle, say it is not going to be passed on to the consumers. How many of you have driven by a gas station at any time in your life when there were two stations on the same corner and there was a nickel difference between the two? The answer is never. All you have to do is have one enterprising station owner decide as a gimmick to sell more gasoline to say, 'I am lowering my price by 4.3 cents and I am passing the savings on to you,' and how long does he stand alone? What happens is the guy on the next corner says, 'We are passing it along, too.' What happens, as in any market situation in a highly competitive product, is that once somebody gets the idea that they can get the consumer to come to them rather than someone else by offering something. And the headlines are going to be, finally we have repealed a tax that never should have been imposed in the first place, and it is going to be passed on to consumers because somebody out there, an entrepreneur is going to be bright enough to say, 'I am lowering the price, you get the tax benefit,' and it will not be able to be contained to that one bright entrepreneur.”