Joe Barton: “I plead guilty. I raise my hand and I plead guilty. I want to make it more difficult to raise taxes on the American…”

“I plead guilty. I raise my hand and I plead guilty. I want to make it more difficult to raise taxes on the American people. I am sorry, but that is the way I feel. Let us just do a little basic math. Most of us took fractions back in elementary school. At least I did at Travis Elementary in Bryan, Texas. Which is the bigger fraction, one-half or two-thirds? When we run the math, we find out, at least in Ennis, Texas, and Travis Elementary in Bryan, Texas, that two-thirds is the bigger fraction by one-sixth. Now, if we convert that one-sixth increase to 435 Members of the House of Representatives, it means it would make it more difficult to raise taxes by approximately 70 votes in the House of Representatives. I think that is a good thing, not a bad thing. Now, to my good friend from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio), if he is still on the House floor, he may have already left, but if he is still on the House floor, I hope he understands that by the end of the day, American taxpayers will have paid to the U.S. Treasury $828 billion. $828 billion. If we add the Social Security taxes, which are over $300 billion, the American taxpayers will have paid over $1 trillion to the U.S. Treasury this year. $1 trillion. That is a thousand billion dollars. How much is enough? Why not raise the bar? Why not go to two-thirds vote in the House and the Senate to raise taxes instead of the one-half?”