Pillars of Prosperity phần 3 ppt

care for their children is rooted in one of the great inequities of the tax code: Congress’s failure to allow individuals the same ability to deduct health care costs that it grants to businesses. As a direct result of Congress’s refusal to provide individuals with health care related tax credits, parents whose employers do not provide health insurance have to struggle to provide health care for their children. Many of these parents work in low-income jobs; oftentimes their only recourse to health care is the local emergency room. Sometimes parents are forced to delay seeking care for their children until minor health concerns that could have been easily treated become serious problems requiring expensive treatment! If these parents had access to the type of tax credits provided in the Family Health Tax Cut Act they would be better able to provide care for their children and our nation’s already overcrowded emergency room facilities would be relieved of the burden of hav- ing to provide routine care for people who otherwise cannot afford any other alternative. According to research on the effects of this bill done by my staff and legislative counsel, the benefit of these tax credits would begin to be felt by joint filers with incomes slightly above $18,000 a year or single income filers with incomes slightly above $15,000 per year. Clearly this bill will be of the most benefit to low-income Americans balancing the demands of taxation with the needs of their children. Under the Family Health Tax Cut Act, a struggling single mother with an asthmatic child would at last be able to provide for her child’s needs, while a working-class family will not have to worry about how they will pay the bills if one of their children requires lengthy hospitalization or some other form of specialized care. Mr. Speaker, this Congress has a moral responsibility to pro- vide low-income parents struggling to care for a sick child tax relief in order to help them better meet their child’s medical expenses. I would ask any of my colleagues who would say that we cannot enact the Family Tax Cut Act because it would cause the government to lose too much revenue, who is more deserving of this money, Congress or the working-class parents of a sick child? The Family Health Tax Cut Act takes a major step toward help- ing working Americans meet their health care needs by providing Giving Money Back to the Taxpayers 81 them with generous health care related tax cuts and tax credits. I urge my colleagues to support the pro-family, pro-health care tax cuts contained in the Family Health Tax Cut Act.  The Public Safety Tax Cut Act Congressional Record—U.S. House of Representatives June 25, 2002 Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to introduce the Public Safety Tax Cut Act. This legislation will achieve two important public policy goals. First, it will effectively overturn a ruling of the Internal Revenue Ser- vice which has declared as taxable income the waiving of fees by local governments who provide service for public safety volunteers. Many local governments use volunteer firefighters and auxil- iary police either in place of, or as a supplement to, their public safety professionals. Often as an incentive to would-be volunteers, the local entities waive all or a portion of the fees typically charged for city services such as the provision of drinking water, sewer charges, or debris pick up. Local entities make these decisions for the purpose of encour- aging folks to volunteer, and seldom do these benefits come any- where near the level of a true compensation for the many hours of training and service required of the volunteers. This, of course, does not even mention the fact that these volunteers very possibly could be called into a situation where they have to put their lives on the line. Rather than encouraging this type of volunteerism, which is so crucial, particularly to America’s rural communities, the IRS has decided that the provision of the benefits described above amounts to taxable income. Not only does this adversely affect the financial position of the volunteer by imposing new taxes upon him or her, it 82 Pillars of Prosperity has in fact led local entities to stop providing these benefits, thus taking away a key tool they have used to recruit volunteers. That is why the IRS ruling in this instance has a substantial negative impact on the spirit of American volunteerism. How far could this go? For example, would consistent application mean that a local Salvation Army volunteer must be taxed for the value of a complimentary ticket to that organization’s annual county dinner? This is obvi- ously bad policy. This legislation would rectify the situation by specifically exempting these types of benefits from federal taxation. Next, this legislation would also provide paid professional police and fire officers with a $1,000 per year tax credit. These professional public safety officers put their lives on the line each and every day, and I think we all agree that there is no way to properly compensate them for the fabulous services they provide. In America we have a tradition of local, as opposed to federal, law enforcement and pub- lic safety provision. So, while it is not the role of our federal gov- ernment to increase the salaries of local officers, it certainly is within our authority to increase their take-home pay by reducing the amount of money that we take from their pockets via federal taxa- tion, and that is something this bill specifically does as well. President George Bush has called on Americans to volunteer their time and energy to enhance public safety. Shouldn’t Congress do its part by reducing taxes that discourage public safety volun- teerism? Shouldn’t Congress also show its appreciation to police officers and fire fighters by reducing their taxes? I believe the answer to both of these questions is a resounding “Yes,” and there- fore I am proud to introduce the Public Safety Tax Cut Act. I request that my fellow Members join in support of this key legislation.  Giving Money Back to the Taxpayers 83 End the Income Tax—Pass the Liberty Amendment Congressional Record—U.S. House of Representatives January 30, 2003 Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to introduce the Liberty Amend- ment, which repeals the 16th Amendment, thus paving the way for real change in the way government collects and spends the peo- ple’s hard-earned money. The Liberty Amendment also explicitly forbids the federal government from performing any action not explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution. The 16th Amendment gives the federal government a direct claim on the lives of American citizens by enabling Congress to levy a direct income tax on individuals. Until the passage of the 16th Amendment, the Supreme Court had consistently held that Congress had no power to impose an income tax. Income taxes are responsible for the transformation of the fed- eral government from one of limited powers into a vast leviathan whose tentacles reach into almost every aspect of American life. Thanks to the income tax, today the federal government routinely invades our privacy, and penalizes our every endeavor. The Founding Fathers realized that “the power to tax is the power to destroy,” which is why they did not give the federal gov- ernment the power to impose an income tax. Needless to say, the Founders would be horrified to know that Americans today give more than a third of their income to the federal government. Income taxes not only diminish liberty, they retard economic growth by discouraging work and production. Our current tax system also forces Americans to waste valuable time and money on compliance with an ever-more complex tax code. The increased interest in flat-tax and national sales tax proposals, as well as the increasing number of small businesses that question the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) “withholding” system provides further proof that America is tired of the labyrinthine tax code. Americans 84 Pillars of Prosperity are also increasingly fed up with an IRS that continues to ride roughshod over their civil liberties, despite recent “pro-taxpayer” reforms. Mr. Speaker, America survived and prospered for 140 years without an income tax, and with a federal government that gener- ally adhered to strictly constitutional functions, operating with modest excise revenues. The income tax opened the door to the era (and errors) of Big government. I hope my colleagues will help close that door by cosponsoring the Liberty Amendment.  Teacher Tax Cut Act Congressional Record—U.S. House of Representatives February 11, 2003 Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to introduce two pieces of legislation that raise the pay of teachers and other educators by cutting their taxes. I am sure that all my colleagues agree that it is long past time to begin treating those who have dedicated their lives to educating America’s children with the respect they deserve. Compared to other professionals, educators are under-appreciated and under- paid. This must change if America is to have the finest education system in the world! Quality education is impossible without quality teaching. If we continue to undervalue educators, it will become harder to attract, and keep, good people in the education profession. While educa- tors’ pay is primarily a local issue, Congress can, and should, help raise educators’ take home pay by reducing educators’ taxes. This is why I am introducing the Teachers Tax Cut Act. This legislation provides every teacher in America with a $1,000 tax credit. I am also introducing the Professional Educators Tax Relief Act, which extends the $1,000 tax credit to counselors, librarians, Giving Money Back to the Taxpayers 85 and all school personnel involved in any aspect of the K–12 aca- demic program. The Teacher Tax Cut Act and the Professional Educators Tax Relief Act increase the salaries of teachers and other education pro- fessionals without raising federal expenditures. By raising the take-home pay of professional educators, these bills encourage highly qualified people to enter, and remain in, education. These bills also let America’s professional educators know that the American people and the Congress respect their work. I hope all my colleagues join me in supporting our nation’s teachers and other professional educators by cosponsoring the Teacher Tax Cut Act and the Professional Educators Tax Relief Act.  The Family Education Freedom Act Congressional Record—U.S. House of Representatives February 11, 2003 Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Family Education Freedom Act, a bill to empower millions of working and middle- class Americans to choose a nonpublic education for their chil- dren, as well as making it easier for parents to actively participate in improving public schools. The Family Education Freedom Act accomplishes its goals by allowing American parents a tax credit of up to $3,000 for the expenses incurred in sending their child to private, public, parochial, other religious school, or for home schooling their children. The Family Education Freedom Act returns the fundamental principle of a truly free economy to America’s education system: what the great economist Ludwig von Mises called “consumer sovereignty.” Consumer sovereignty simply means consumers decide who succeeds or fails in the market. Businesses that best 86 Pillars of Prosperity satisfy consumer demand will be the most successful. Consumer sovereignty is the means by which the free market maximizes human happiness. Currently, consumers are less than sovereign in the education market. Funding decisions are increasingly controlled by the fed- eral government. Because “he who pays the piper calls the tune,’’ public, and even private schools, are paying greater attention to the dictates of federal “educrats’’ while ignoring the wishes of the parents to an ever-greater degree. As such, the lack of consumer sovereignty in education is destroying parental control of educa- tion and replacing it with state control. Loss of control is a key rea- son why so many of America’s parents express dissatisfaction with the educational system. According to a study by The Polling Company, over 70 percent of all Americans support education tax credits! This is just one of numerous studies and public opinion polls showing that Ameri- cans want Congress to get the federal bureaucracy out of the schoolroom and give parents more control over their children’s education. Today, Congress can fulfill the wishes of the American people for greater control over their children’s education by simply allow- ing parents to keep more of their hard-earned money to spend on education rather than force them to send it to Washington to sup- port education programs reflective only of the values and priori- ties of Congress and the federal bureaucracy. The $3,000 tax credit will make a better education affordable for millions of parents. Mr. Speaker, many parents who would choose to send their children to private, religious, or parochial schools are unable to afford the tuition, in large part because of the enormous tax burden imposed on the American family by Washington. The Family Education Freedom Act also benefits parents who choose to send their children to public schools. Parents of children in public schools may use this credit to help improve their local schools by helping finance the purchase of educational tools such as computers or to ensure their local schools can offer enriching extracurricular activities such as music programs. Parents of pub- lic school students may also wish to use the credit to pay for spe- cial services, such as tutoring, for their children. Giving Money Back to the Taxpayers 87 Increasing parental control of education is superior to funnel- ing more federal tax dollars, followed by greater federal control, into the schools. According to a Manhattan Institute study of the effects of state policies promoting parental control over education, a minimal increase in parental control boosts students’ average SAT verbal score by 21 points and students’ SAT math score by 22 points! The Manhattan Institute study also found that increasing parental control of education is the best way to improve student performance on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) tests. Clearly, enactment of the Family Education Freedom Act is the best thing this Congress could do to improve public education. Furthermore, a greater reliance on parental expenditures rather than government tax dollars will help make the public schools into true community schools that reflect the wishes of parents and the interests of the students. The Family Education Freedom Act will also aid those parents who choose to educate their children at home. Home schooling has become an increasingly popular, and successful, method of edu- cating children. Home schooled children outperform their public school peers by 30 to 37 percentile points across all subjects on nationally standardized achievement exams. Home schooling par- ents spend thousands of dollars annually, in addition to the wages forgone by the spouse who forgoes outside employment, in order to educate their children in the loving environment of the home. Ultimately, Mr. Speaker, this bill is about freedom. Parental control of child rearing, especially education, is one of the bul- warks of liberty. No nation can remain free when the state has greater influence over the knowledge and values transmitted to children than the family. By moving to restore the primacy of parents to education, the Family Education Freedom Act will not only improve America’s education, it will restore a parent’s right to choose how best to edu- cate one’s own child, a fundamental freedom that has been eroded by the increase in federal education expenditures and the corre- sponding decrease in the ability of parents to provide for their chil- dren’s education out of their own pockets. I call on all my colleagues to join me in allowing parents to devote more of their resources to 88 Pillars of Prosperity their children’s education and less to feed the wasteful Washington bureaucracy by supporting the Family Education Freedom Act.  The False Tax Cut Debate Congressional Record—U.S. House of Representatives May 6, 2003 The current tax cut debate is more about politics than serious economics. Both sides use demagoguery but don’t propose signif- icant tax cuts. The benefits that could come from the current tax cut proposal unfortunately are quite small and not immediate. Some say tax cuts raise revenues by increasing economic activ- ity, thus providing Congress with even more money to spend. Others say lowering taxes simply lowers revenues and increases deficits. Some say we must target tax cuts to the poor and middle class so they will spend the money. Others say tax cuts should be tar- geted to the rich so they can invest and create jobs. We must accept that it’s hard to give tax cuts to people who don’t pay taxes. But, we could, if we wanted, cut payroll taxes for lower income workers. The truth is, government officials can’t know what consumers and investors will do if they get a tax cut. Plugging tax cut data into a computer and expecting an accurate projection of the eco- nomic outcome is about as reliable as asking Congress to project government surpluses. Two important points are purposely ignored: 1. The money people earn is their own and they have a moral right to keep as much of it as possible. It is not Congress’s money to spend. Giving Money Back to the Taxpayers 89 2. Government spending is the problem! Taking a big chunk of the people’s earnings out of the economy, whether through taxes or borrowing, is always harmful. Taxation is more honest and direct, and the harm is less hidden. Borrowing, especially since the Federal Reserve creates credit out of thin air to loan to big spenders in Congress, is more deceitful. It hides the effects and delays the consequences. But over the long term this method of financing is much more dangerous. The process by which the Fed monetizes debt and accommo- dates Congress contributes to, if not causes, most of our problems. This process of government financing: 1. Generates the business cycle and thus increases unemploy- ment; 2. Destroys the value of the dollar and thus causes price infla- tion; 3. Encourages deficits by reducing restraints on congres- sional spending; 4. Encourages an increase in the current account deficit (the dollar being the reserve currency) and causes huge foreign indebtedness; 5. Reflects a philosophy of instant gratification that says, “Live for the pleasures of today and have future genera- tions pay the bills.” Two points to remember: 1. Whether or not people can keep what they earn is first a moral issue and second an economic issue. Tax cuts should never be referred to as a “cost to government.” Tax cuts should be much bigger and come much sooner for everyone. 2. The real issue is total spending by government, yet this issue is ignored or politicized by both sides of the aisle in Congress. The political discussion about whether to cut taxes avoids the real issues and instead degenerates into charges of class and party warfare, with both sides lusting for power. Of course the real issue for the ages, namely “What is the proper role for government in a constitutional republic?” is totally 90 Pillars of Prosperity [...]... next year The committee takes note of this view and expresses its concern What it does not 102 Pillars of Prosperity seem to realize, however, is that the persistent policy of monetary inflation pursued by the Federal Reserve makes these recessions inevitable The timing of the next recession may be a matter of guessing; the fact of the next recession is not In view of this fact, it is not enough to... Record—U.S House of Representatives August 1, 2007 Mr Speaker, I am pleased to help America’s law enforcement officers by introducing the Police Security Protection Act This legislation provides police officers a tax credit for the purchase of armored vests Professional law enforcement officers put their lives on the line each and every day Reducing the tax liability of law enforcement officers so they... end when we shut off the printing presses and make our dollar redeemable in gold once more Money and Banking: Gold versus Fiat 105 Government Should Stop Destroying Value of the Dollar Congressional Record—U.S House of Representatives July 20, 1979 Mr Speaker, in 1964, you could buy a suit of clothes for $35 : 1 ounce of gold Today, you can buy a very nice suit for 1 ounce of gold: $30 0 Prices have... the expansion of the supply of money and credit This expansion depreciates the value of each existing dollar For many years, Congress has gotten away with inflation, which it used to pay for deficits and to stimulate the economy This inflation has stolen hundreds of billions of dollars from orphans and widows, from the aged and the poor, from the thrifty and hard working 116 Pillars of Prosperity Congress... for the IMF to oversee the compliance of each member with its obligation This authority for fund surveillance gives the fund the tactic 98 Pillars of Prosperity of applying a global perspective to action of those members that cause adjustments or other problems for other nations Members are obliged to provide the fund with information necessary for surveillance of these exchange rate policies The other... American people as head of the Federal Reserve System? Now he is going to the Treasury Department, to manage all of our financial affairs We will never have stable prices, until the government—Congress, President, Treasury, and Federal Reserve—ceases the policies of increasing money and credit that are destroying the value of every dollar that belongs to the American people 106 Pillars of Prosperity Increased... of gold bought 100 gallons of gasoline, today it will buy nearly 400 gallons Until we in the Congress realize our problem is the depreciating American dollar and not the high prices that are merely the consequence of our spendthrift ways, we will never solve the problems of inflation that is eating away at the earnings and savings of every American citizen 108 Pillars of Prosperity Inflation is Caused... destruction of a market economy, should our present policies of monetary management continue Sound, honest money needs no managers The integrity of our leaders should ensure money of real value If this were so, inflation would disappear and our economy could be put on the road to recovery Print 3 Million and Take 1 Million for Yourself Congressional Record—U.S House of Representatives May 31 , 1979 Mr... what is going on and it is our obligation and duty as Representatives in this nation to study it closely 100 Pillars of Prosperity Inflation—The Overriding Concern of All Americans Congressional Record—U.S House of Representatives February 15, 1979 Mr Speaker, today the overriding concern of all Americans is the inflation with which they have been forced to live In recent years concern about inflation... the former dictator of Uganda for printing up 2 million Ugandan shillings worth of 100 shilling notes “At the close of their conversation,” said Mr Ottaway, the salesman “gingerly asked how he was to be paid.” “Print 3 million and take 1 million for yourself,” Amin angrily retorted Inflation, the expansion of the money supply, helped destroy Uganda’s economy, along with other forms of government regulation . types of benefits from federal taxation. Next, this legislation would also provide paid professional police and fire officers with a $1,000 per year tax credit. These professional public safety officers. support of this key legislation.  Giving Money Back to the Taxpayers 83 End the Income Tax—Pass the Liberty Amendment Congressional Record—U.S. House of Representatives January 30 , 20 03 Mr. Speaker,. number of small businesses that question the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) “withholding” system provides further proof that America is tired of the labyrinthine tax code. Americans 84 Pillars of