Pete Sessions: “Is this going to make people better? Is it going to encourage their best instincts or will it encourage poor instincts?…”

“Is this going to make people better? Is it going to encourage their best instincts or will it encourage poor instincts? Will it encourage bad behavior? If they vote for or against bills on that basis, will it make us better people? That is an important issue. We ought to think about it. We encourage a lot of activities in America through our tax policies. We encourage people to give to charitable institutions, churches, and schools by making those contributions tax deductible. We help families raise their children by providing a deduction or a child tax credit, which we passed a few years ago. We encourage savings by making the interest on individual retirement accounts tax free. I have introduced a bill to make the interest that accrues on savings for prepaid college tuition plans tax free because we ought to encourage saving for education and have families and children invest in their education. In my view, that is bad public policy.”