Hon. Michael G. Oxley: “let us get one thing straight first of all. The taxpayers that I know the gentleman from Massachusetts is so fond of and…”

“let us get one thing straight first of all. The taxpayers that I know the gentleman from Massachusetts is so fond of and wants to protect, the taxpayers who pay into the Superfund and the very polluters that he is talking about. He would allow the impression out there that somehow these taxpayers, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Sixpack, are paying, are going to pay for these cleanups. And we simply cannot allow that argument to stand. It makes no sense. The Superfund program is basically funded to the tune of $1.6 billion a year until, of course, the President vetoed those taxes that go into the Superfund, $1.6 billion a year that come from the oil companies, the chemical companies, from chemical feedstocks, and the environmental income tax, that is really what funds the program. So my friend from Massachusetts, who I know is a great friend of the taxpayers, has received a lot of awards for his stand on lower taxes and protecting the taxpayer, I am appalled, frankly, that my friend from Massachusetts would make the argument here on the floor of the House of Representatives that somehow the taxpayer is going to bail out these evil corporate polluters when, in fact, they are paying the taxes in the first place. They are not getting their money's worth, folks. All you have to do is look at the program, 15 years of failure, about 5 percent of the sites on the national priorities list cleaned up. We have spent $30 billion in public and private moneys to clean up these sites.”