David Thomas: “I assume there is some relevancy to this particular debate on this particular measure offered by the gentleman from…”

“I assume there is some relevancy to this particular debate on this particular measure offered by the gentleman from Washington. But I think we really ought to put this entire debate in perspective. In 1993, with a Democrat President and a Democratically controlled Congress, the largest tax increase in the history of the United States was put in place. There was an opportunity at that time to make adjustments on the Alternative Minimum Tax which would not place us in the position that we are in today. That measure passed this House with all Democratic votes and no Republican votes. That was in the first full year of President Clinton's presidency. The next year was an off-year election for the House of Representatives and one-third of the United States Senate. The American people, for the first time in 40 years, decided that empty promises and failure to deliver and continuing to assume that by requiring Americans to send a dollar to Washington with bureaucratic waste, fraud and abuse subtracted and the 86 cents, the 82 cents, the 76 cents that was sent back to them on programs that they promised to help them was a failed policy. That produced the first Congress of a Republican majority in 40 years. Ten years later, Republicans are still in the majority. I do not see any better example of the fundamental choices in which the American people chose our way of dealing with issues versus theirs.”