Joe Barton: “I might also point out that those who say all that necessary--the only protection that is necessary is protection of a…”

“I might also point out that those who say all that necessary--the only protection that is necessary is protection of a constitutional majority to pass a tax increase--we have researched in the House, and there has not been a tax increase that passed with a minority vote. Now there have been some that passed on a voice vote, two in the last 30 years that passed by a voice vote, but if it came to a vote, in every occasion obviously it won by getting a majority vote. So to say that a constitutional majority is sufficient protection against the tax increase on this floor every time a tax increase is passed by rollcall vote, it has had a majority, and in most cases it has had a constitutional majority, which is 218. A simple majority would be maybe 216, if several people were not voting, and traditionally the Speaker does not vote. But to get real protection against tax increases you do need the three fifths, and, as the gentleman from Arizona pointed out, in many of the States that have tax limitation provisions it is two thirds, and in some it is three fourths.”