Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker,
it is my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to
the gentleman from Texas (Mr. PAUL).
(Mr. PAUL asked and was given permission
to revise and extend his remarks.)
1999 Ron Paul 27:1 Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the
gentleman from Texas for yielding me
this time.
1999 Ron Paul 27:2 I would like to start off by saying
that I admire political courage. I have
been fascinated by the Members from
the other side of the aisle who have
been willing, in the light of day and before
the American people, to stand up
and tell us that they do like it to be
easy to raise taxes, and they object to
making it more difficult to raise taxes.
So I admire them for that.
1999 Ron Paul 27:3 But we must ask, why are taxes high?
Taxes are high because government is
big. We are dealing with only one-half
of the equation. As long as the American
people want big government, as
long as they want a welfare state, and
as long as they believe we should police
the world, taxes will remain high.
1999 Ron Paul 27:4 This is a token effort to move in the
right direction of eliminating taxes.
Big government is financed in three
different ways. First, we borrow
money. Borrowing is legal under the
Constitution, although that was debated
at the Constitutional Convention,
and the Jeffersonians lost. Someday
we should deal with that. We
should not be able to borrow to finance
big government.
1999 Ron Paul 27:5 Something that we do here in Washington
which is also unconstitutional
is to inflate the currency to pay for
debt. Last year the Federal Reserve
bought Treasury debt to the tune of $43
billion. This helps finance big government.
This is illegal, unconstitutional,
and is damaging to our economy.
1999 Ron Paul 27:6 But we are dealing with taxes today.
Taxes today are at the highest peacetime
level ever, going over 21 percent
of the GDP. The problem is that taxes
are too high.
1999 Ron Paul 27:7 I commend the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. BARTON) for bringing this
measure to the floor. I would say this
is a modest approach. Today we can
raise taxes with a 50 percent vote. I and
others would like to make it 100 percent.
It would be great if we needed 100
percent of the people to vote to raise
taxes. I see this as a modest compromise
and one of moderation. So I
would say that I strongly endorse this
move to make it more difficult in a
very modest way.
Mr. WATT of North Carolina. Mr.
Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute just
for the purpose of asking the gentleman
from Texas (Mr. PAUL) a question.
I take it that the gentleman believes
that government is too big and that is
a function of both what it takes in and
what goes out, what it spends out.
So would it be fair to say that the
gentleman would support a constitutional
amendment requiring a two-thirds
vote for expenditures, too?
1999 Ron Paul 27:8 Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman
will yield, that sounds like a
pretty good idea.
Mr. WATT of North Carolina. Mr.
Speaker, I thought that might be the
case.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of
my time.
Note:
1999 Ron Paul 27:1
I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding me this time. Here, Ron Paul thanks The Honorable Joe Barton.
