Joe Cunningham: “if Patrick Henry could come back today, he would be appalled at what taxation with representation gives us today. There…”

“if Patrick Henry could come back today, he would be appalled at what taxation with representation gives us today. There was not time to speak during the debate, so I would like to set the record straight, and these are facts, undisputable facts. First of all, I would like to address the issue that George W. Bush lost jobs and the surplus. Fact: In history, in the year 2000, we were starting into a recession. Alan Greenspan. We had tax relief 2 years ago. Alan Greenspan and the majority of economists say that that tax relief shallowed that recession. Then, Mr. Speaker, we had 9/11. I cannot tell you the effects of this. To New York it was $283 billion, including the $83 billion in lost revenue, and it did hurt this country. I would like to respond to the ranking minority leader, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi). She stated that only Democrats voted for the 1993 tax increase. Let me tell you why Republicans did not vote for the 1993 tax bill. I would say in fairness, not all the Democrats were here during that 1993 period and they should not be held accountable, but the Democrat leadership should. First of all, they gave us the largest tax increase in history in 1993, and this is when the White House, the House and the Senate was controlled by the Democrats. I heard the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt) stand up here and plead for a middle-class tax cut in that 1993 bill. It was the largest tax on the middle class we have ever had in U.S. history.”