Senate Floor Speech
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
February 6, 2001 -- Page: S1041

MRS. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about President Bush's tax relief plan and what I hope will be congressional approval of tax relief for hard-working Americans.

It is very clear we are going to have a bigger surplus than we ever even dreamed would be possible when we passed the Balanced Budget Act. It is estimated now at $5.6 trillion. The President's plan takes approximately 25 percent of this huge surplus and says the people deserve to keep more of their money. This is an income tax surplus. People are sending more to Washington than Washington needs to do its responsibility to cover the costs of Government, to the tune of $5.6 trillion. Doesn't it make sense to cut back on the amount people have to send to Washington? We think so.

The President's plan gives a tax cut to every American who is paying taxes. It replaces the current five-rate tax structure with four lower rates: 10, 15, 25, and 33. It doubles the child tax credit to $1,000, reduces the marriage penalty, which we have been trying to do now for 4 years, eliminates the death tax, expands the charitable tax deduction, and makes the research and development tax credit permanent.

What happens when this is passed? Who are the biggest winners? One in five taxpaying families with children will no longer pay any income tax at all. One in every five families who pay taxes and have children will pay no income tax. It will remove 6 million American families from the tax rolls. A family of four making $35,000 will get a 100-percent Federal income tax cut. A family of four making $50,000 a year will receive a 50-percent tax cut, receiving at least $1,600 in tax relief. A family of four making $75,000 a year will receive a 25-percent tax cut. The marginal income tax rate on low-income families will fall by more than 40 percent. That is the effect this tax relief will have on American families.

The current code is not fair, and it is taking too much. What we need is balance in our system. What this approach will do is pay down the debt, protect Social Security, increase spending for priority needs, and give hard-working Americans more in their pocketbook.

Mr. President, you are going to hear a lot more about this in future months because I believe Congress is going to work with the President to give the tax relief he is seeking. I look forward to the discussion because I cannot think of any reason hard-working Americans should not have the money they earn in their pocketbooks rather than sending it to Washington for a program of which they have never heard.

I thank the Chair. I yield the floor.