James Traficant: “I think we should take ourselves out of the fish bowl and think like everyone else. We talk about user fees, service…”

“I think we should take ourselves out of the fish bowl and think like everyone else. We talk about user fees, service fees, excise taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, estate taxes, capital gains taxes, property taxes, marriage taxes, school taxes, fuel taxes, aviation taxes, old taxes, new taxes, surtaxes and retroactive taxes, so it is no wonder the American people are, in fact, taxed off. How many ways can we tax our country, Congress? Let us look at the local level, how screwed up this whole situation is: If someone fixes up their home, they pay more taxes. If they let it go to hell, they get a tax break. Now let us look at the Federal level: If someone is single, divorced or they abandon their kids, they get a tax break. If they are married and live responsibly, they pay $1,400 a year more and get hit over the head for being a good citizen. As my colleagues know, this is unbelievable to me. Now, to make it even worse, the American people are looking back and reading the headlines today and saying, ``With our money Uncle Sam now wants to give more MFN to China and another $10 billion, an additional $10 billion in foreign aid to Russia even though the Russian top financial officer says they stole the last American aid. Beam me up here. I think it is time to make a common-sense statement to the Congress and the people of the country.…”