Rob Portman: “This is a bipartisan effort that the gentleman from California (Mr. Matsui) and I started some time ago; it has been…”

“This is a bipartisan effort that the gentleman from California (Mr. Matsui) and I started some time ago; it has been bipartisan from the start. It is an attempt to look at our Tax Code in a time of prosperity and budget surpluses and see what makes sense and what does not. It is our sense that this is a perfect candidate for repeal. This particular tax started back in 1898 at a time when the U.S. was engaged in a war with the Spanish and we wanted to get a little revenue, so we went after a luxury item called a telephone that very few Americans had, only the wealthy; and we said, let us put a tax on this telephone, that very few people have, to help pay for this war.”