Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker,
I want to yield to another gentleman from Texas, Dr. PAUL. I’m going to ask him to try to do it in 2 minutes, and I may yield additional time if he needs it. 2 minutes.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Gentleman is recognized for 2 minutes.
1998 Ron Paul 36:1
Mr. PAUL.
Ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks.
1998 Ron Paul 36:3
Mr. PAUL.
I thank the
gentleman for yielding, and I thank
the gentleman from Texas [Mr. BARTON] for bringing this very
important issue to the floor.
1998 Ron Paul 36:4
I would also like to
compliment the gentlemen and ladies
on the other side who have spoken out
against this resolution, because I have
to compliment you. You are brave to
be able to come up here and speak your
beliefs and really come out on the position
of for taxes. If I did something
like that, I could not return to
Texas. But I have to admire you for
your willingness to come here and take
a pro-tax position, so I think that is to
be commendable.
1998 Ron Paul 36:5
I really only have 2 minutes and I really can’t do that right now. I would like to suggest to our side that if we all in the Congress
did a better job in following the
Constitution, we wouldn’t need this
amendment. Because if we took our
oath of office seriously, if we followed
the Doctrine of Enumerated Powers, if
we knew the original intent of the Constitution,
this government and this
Congress would be very small and,
therefore, we would not have to be worrying.
1998 Ron Paul 36:6
And the other contention that we have and we have to think about is if we do not already
follow the Constitution in so
many ways, why are we going to follow
it next time? Nevertheless, this is a
great debate. I’m glad I’m a cosponsor. I’m glad it was brought to the
floor.
1998 Ron Paul 36:7
We do have to remember there’s another
half to taxation and that’s the
spending half. It is politically unpopular
to talk about spending. It is politically
very popular to talk about the
taxes. So, yes, we’re for lower taxes,
but we also have to realize that
government is too big. They’re consuming
50 percent of our revenues and
our income today, and that is the problem.
1998 Ron Paul 36:8
Government can pay for these bills in
three different ways. One, they can tax
us. One, they can borrow. And one,
they can have the tax of inflation,
which is indeed a tax. We’re dealing
here only with one single tax. But
eventually, when we make a sincere effort
to get this government under control,
we will look at all three areas.
1998 Ron Paul 36:9
We will limit the borrowing power. We will limit the ability of this Congress
to inflate the currency to pay the
bills. And we certainly will follow the
rules of this House and this Constitution
and not raise taxes. Thank you.
