Political Quotes

“as the first Member of Congress to introduce the family tax credit in the 103d Congress, I am troubled with the tax bill we will vote on this week which includes a much-needed $500 tax credit for families with children on one hand but also includes a payroll tax increase on Federal employees on the other. Federal employees are virtually all middle-class taxpayers. We promised no tax increases on middle-class Americans. And I am personally very disappointed to be put in such an untenable position. I was calling for the family tax relief in the 102d Congress and the 103d Congress when Republicans in the White House and many in Congress would not give it the time of day. Yet my bill for family tax relief garnered bipartisan support for 263 cosponsors in the 102d Congress. Raising taxes to fund a tax cut was never part of the picture. So why sully our tax package now with a tax increase? President Bush did not balance the budget by raising taxes and neither did President Clinton. We will be breaking our promise in the contract not to raise taxes. Therefore, I hope that it will not only be those Republicans with large numbers of Federal employees in their districts who will oppose payroll tax hikes own certain groups but all on our side on the aisle who signed the contract as well as those Democrats who oppose increasing taxes on the middle class.”