Senate Floor Speech
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
February 28, 2001 -- Page: S1667

MRS. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Tennessee for talking about the President's budget plan. I, too, am very pleased that President Bush is keeping the promises he made to the American people when he was elected President of the United States. Congress is going to work with the President to make sure we have the balanced and responsible approach he has requested of Congress to work with him.

Let's talk about the balance that is in this plan. We have a $5.6 trillion surplus. The first and foremost responsibility we have with this surplus is to protect Social Security. That is exactly what we do. We will protect Social Security by keeping all of the Social Security part of the surplus in the Social Security fund.

Secondly, we are going to spend more money for high-priority items. The President has outlined the high-priority items he considers are No. 1 issues facing America today--No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3: Public education, national defense, and prescription drug benefits for our senior citizens.

There is no question that many people believe they cannot afford the drugs they have to take to stay healthy. That is not a choice people should have to make. We want to make sure they do have the fundamental prescription drugs they need at a price they can afford. So we will have to spend more money in that area.

National security is the major responsibility of the U.S. Government. States and individuals cannot protect themselves from wars or from an incoming ballistic missile. We must do that with all of the States contributing to our country and our Federal Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines.

So we have to make sure our men and women in the military have the health care, the educational benefits for themselves and their children, and the pay they deserve. These are the people on the front line. These are the people stepping up to the plate to protect our freedom--our freedom to talk on the floor today, our freedom to go to a playground and have safety on that playground. These are the people on the front line doing it. We are going to treat them well.

Of course, we must have a public education system that allows every child to reach his or her full potential with a public education. We want no child in our country to be left behind. If we can get the resources to these children at the earliest levels, where they have basic reading skills in the third grade, where they have the ability to do simple basic math in the fourth grade, then we will give them the tools they need to be able to learn algebra and calculus and the more complicated math and science and reading opportunities they must be able to address. So we are going to fund those priorities at a higher level.

We are going to pay down the debt at the greatest rate we can. We cannot pay down the debt fully because people would not be able to invest in Treasurys. We want that very safe investment for our people. And we want to invest for the United States.

We want our Government money to earn interest. We don't want it to sit there. We will have some debt, but all of the outside-owned debt is going to be paid down, $2 trillion over the next 10 years.

Last, but certainly not least, we are going to give tax relief to every American. Every American who is working will get tax relief under the plan put forward last night by President Bush. We are going to simplify the tax system. We have a five-rate structure today: a 15-percent bracket, a 28-percent bracket, a 31-percent bracket, a 36-percent bracket, and a 39.6-percent bracket. We want to lower all of those rates and only have four: a 10, 15, 25, and a 33.

I thought the President said it very well last night. He thinks anyone in the 15-percent bracket should pay no more than 10 percent of his or her income to the Federal Government. As well, we don't think any American should pay more than one-third of what they make to the Federal Government, so the top bracket would be 33 percent.

What does that mean in real terms? It means that one in five taxpaying families with children will no longer pay any income tax at all. It will completely remove 6 million American families from the tax rolls. A family of four making $35,000 would get a 100-percent Federal income tax cut--off the rolls. A family of four that makes $50,000 would receive a 50-percent tax cut, receiving approximately $1,600 in relief. A family of four making $75,000 will receive a 25-percent tax cut. We are going to give real relief to every working American.

We are also going to increase the earned-income tax credit to make sure people who are coming off welfare know that it is better to work and there is a reward for working rather than being on welfare. These are the effects that tax relief can make for every American.

We will also double the child tax credit to make sure every family with children will have a $1,000-per-child tax credit rather than the $500-per-child tax credit they now have. We want to make sure that you can deduct your charitable contributions, even if you don't itemize deductions. We want to eliminate the death tax because we don't think someone in America should have to sell their family-owned business or their farm just to pay taxes to the Federal Government. This is not money that has never been taxed. It is money that was taxed when it was earned and taxed when it was invested. There is no need to tax it again. We have a projected $5.6 trillion surplus, and we do not think people should have to pay taxes and sell a small business and take away all the jobs in that small business just to pay taxes to the Federal Government.

We do want to lower the Federal tax burden on the families of our country at the same time that we are paying down the debt so it will be the very minimum amount of debt required to have Government securities. We do want to prioritize spending so we are covering the costs that we know are a priority--public education, a strong national defense, prescription drug options under Medicare. These are the things where we will increase money, and we will flat line expenses that we don't need to increase.

Some people say: You mean you are actually going to not spend more in a Government program? Well, doesn't every family budget that way? Does a family spend the same amount every year on the same items? No. Maybe your children need more in clothes this year or maybe they don't need more in clothes.

Maybe they are OK on clothes, and so you can buy the new computer. You make choices in a family. That is what we need to do in the Federal Government as well.

It is time we had a balanced approach. Every time I hear somebody criticizing the tax cut plan, it is because they want to spend more money. We are making Social Security secure. We are going to give more benefits under Medicare. My goodness, why would we want to spend more and more money when we have a surplus and when we are prioritizing the needs of the Government and when the taxpayer dollars don't belong to Government.

That is the real difference. A lot of people around here think tax dollars belong to them. Tax dollars belong to the people who earn it, and they should have the choices to spend it the way they see fit for their families. This is not money I worked to earn, and I shouldn't make the decisions on how to spend it except for the overall national good. The overall national good should not take more than 33 percent of anyone's salary, and it should take the lowest amount that is absolutely necessary because this is money people work very hard to bring home for their families.

I applaud the President for a balanced approach, for giving tax relief to every American who is working, for paying down the debt at the greatest rate that we have ever seen, for prioritizing our spending to increase national defense, public education, and Medicare prescription drug benefits, and to make sure all of our programs are sound and solid. We can do these things if we are responsible stewards of the taxpayer dollars and if we remember that the taxpayer dollars do not belong to the Federal Government except to the extent absolutely necessary. They belong to the people who earned them.

We are going to make sure we are responsible stewards of those dollars that people have worked so hard to support their family.

I will work with the President of the United States to be a responsible leader with the very important duty we have to the people who elected us to the Senate.