Joe Barton: “In plain common language, what we are trying to do with this constitutional amendment is to make it more difficult to…”

“In plain common language, what we are trying to do with this constitutional amendment is to make it more difficult to raise taxes. I have listened to the opponents very carefully this afternoon. I have yet to have any of the opponents say that the amendment would not accomplish its intended purpose; that is, if passed and put into the Constitution, it would make it more difficult to raise taxes. As Americans are scurrying around as we speak, trying to get their taxes done or that extension form filled out so they have the magic postmark of midnight, April 15, on their tax return, I think we owe it to them to do something substantively in the House of Representatives this afternoon, or this evening, to make it more difficult to raise their taxes. Now, we have pointed out earlier in this debate that in the Constitution, as adopted, there was a direct prohibition against any direct tax, a 100-percent prohibition. We could not have an income tax. The 16th amendment, passed in 1913, said we could have incomes taxes, and since that time the average tax rate on the American people has gone from zero income taxes to an average of 19 percent.”