1998 Ron Paul 56:2
The Chairman. The clerk will designate the amendment.
1998 Ron Paul 56:3
The Clerk. Amendment number 7 printed in House report 105573 offered by Mr. PAUL of Texas.
1998 Ron Paul 56:4
The Chairman. Pursuant to House Resolution 462 the gentleman from Texas (Mr. PAUL) and a Member opposed will each control 5 minutes. The Chair recognizes the gentleman
from Texas.
1998 Ron Paul 56:5
Mr. PAUL.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield myself
such time as I may consume.
1998 Ron Paul 56:6
Mr. Chairman, my amendment is not
a complicated amendment. It merely
redesignates the priorities of governments
as they line up in the receiving
end of a bankruptcy. These are unsecured
debts.
1998 Ron Paul 56:7
Basically the way the law states now
and the way the bill is written is that
the IRS is the top government agency
that’s going to receive the money, and
then the State and then the local government. And my suggestion in my amendment
is very simple and very clear and
makes a very strong philosophic point,
is why should we hold the IRS in such
high esteem? Why should they be on
top of the list? Why should the money
leave the local districts and go to
Washington? Why should it go into the
coffers of the IRS, funding programs
that are basically unconstitutional
when there are so many programs that
we are not doing and take it out of our
school districts?
1998 Ron Paul 56:8
If we reverse the order, the local government
gets the money first, the
money that would be left over from the
bankruptcy, then the State government,
and then the Federal Government. And this merely states the point,
which I hope we can get across someday
in this Congress, that the priority
in government should be local government,
not a big, strong Federal Government.
1998 Ron Paul 56:9
Indeed, today there is a lot of resentment
in this country against the IRS
and the way we spend money up here,
and this emphasizes a very important
point, that money should be left in the
district, money should be left in the
States, and at last resort, the money
should come here to the Federal Government.
1998 Ron Paul 56:10
Now, one of the arguments used against
this amendment is, “Uh-oh, it’s going
to cost the Government some money.”
Cost the Government some money by
leaving the money in the State or locally,
or leaving it in the pockets of
the American people as that same argument
is used in tax increases? Hardly
would it be difficult for the small
amounts, I don’t even know the exact
amount of money that might be lost to
the Treasury because some of these
funds might not flow here in this direction,
but it can’t be a tremendous
amount. But what’s wrong with the
suggestion that we just cut something?
1998 Ron Paul 56:11
There are so many places that we can
cut. Instead, all we do around here is
look around for more places to spend
money. Today we’re even talking
about increasing taxes by three-quarters
of a trillion dollars on a tobacco
program. We are always looking for
more revenues and more spending programs
and we are worried about paying
for a little less revenues coming into
the Federal Government.
1998 Ron Paul 56:12
So, once again, this amendment is very
clear. It states that in the order of designating
these funds on unsecured
creditors, local government would get
the money first, then State government,
and then the Federal Government.
1998 Ron Paul 56:13
In the 1980s, in the early 1990s, when
Texas and California had trouble,
money flowed up here in the middle of
bankruptcies at the same time school
districts were suffering, putting a
greater burden on local school districts. So this is to me a very clear
principled position to state that we
should have local government, not Federal
Government, that we should not
enhance the power and the authority of
the Federal Government and certainly
should not put the IRS and the Federal
Government on the top of the pecking
order. They should be at the bottom
where they deserve to be. So I would ask my colleagues to endorse
this legislation and this amendment
to this legislation. I support the
legislation. I am hopeful that this
amendment will be passed.
