Jim Bunning

Mr. BUNNING

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrich), the Speaker of the House.

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute to respond to my good friend from New York and tell him that we will have a bill ready to go when the present occupancy of the White House is removed from the White House so that we can get the cooperation of the new President and work with him to make a bill that the American people have participated in and they have let their representatives know that the Tax Code that we presently have is unacceptable and that they are the defenders, my good friend from New York, are the defenders of the status quo and they want to keep the code and redistribute the income of their current people that they represent and make sure that their supporters are part of that Tax Code and they get that income and make sure that they continue to support that. But we do not want to do that. We want to make sure that we have a new code and a new occupancy of the White House. As soon as we can get that done, we will have a code ready to go. And that is what the law that we have proposed says. The law, not a substitute for the law. Mr. Speaker, I yield 7 minutes to my good friend, the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Largent).

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Paxon), a coauthor of this legislation.

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Cannon).

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Graham).

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from South Dakota (Mr. Thune).

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns). (Mr. STEARNS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. One of the primary reasons why fundamental tax reform has not been enacted, and I hear many Members over there saying, well, you are in the majority, let us go enact these changes, is that the person who occupies the Oval Office is opposed to any kind of tax reform. He likes it. He likes the code as it is, as do many Members on the other side of the aisle who, for 40 years, when they controlled the House of Representatives, used it as a means of redistribution of income in favor of their constituents and their supporters. That is why we need to replace this Tax Code as soon as possible. Despite the 40 years of Democrat controls, they wrote a code which no one considers fair or simple. How and now is the time to redo it. They did not do it for 40 years when they were in command. We want to do it and start it today. Legislation that we have in front of us is the first step in making that change.

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Colorado, Mr. Bob Schaffer.

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Hefley).

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Riley).

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Idaho (Mrs. Chenoweth).

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey) the Majority Leader.

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Wyoming (Mrs. Cubin).

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 15 seconds. It is better than taking money from the Chinese government. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Metcalf).

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sam Johnson). (Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. English).

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. Dunn).

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Dan Schaefer). (Mr. DAN SCHAEFER of Colorado asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Largent), one of the authors of the bill, to respond.

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume to open the debate on this bill. Mr. Speaker, the Federal income tax system is broken beyond repair. We cannot tinker with it any longer and make it work any better. We need to wholesale reform and totally overhaul the system. There are two basic elements that are absolutely necessary for a Federal tax system. It must be understandable, and it must be fair. As it now stands, our Federal income tax fails badly on both counts. Our Tax Code has become so complex that no one can understand it. When tax experts cannot agree on how much an American taxpayer owes, how can we expect the average taxpayer to understand it? This complexity is expensive. It costs over $300 billion a year for taxpayers to comply with the Tax Code. That is money that is totally wasted. It does not benefit government or increase funding for essential services. It does not benefit the private sector or create investment, develop jobs, or improve the quality of life. It is just money down the drain. It is a crime. Our Tax Code is unfair. We have focused a great deal of attention this year on the marriage penalty, but this is just one of hundreds of inequities in the existing law. Over the years, Congress has created a hodgepodge of loopholes and arcane tax incentives, most of which were well-intentioned. But when you take them altogether and weed them into a 5\1/2\ million word tax code, it creates such a mess that only the very wealthy have the ability to take advantage of them. That creates unfairness. As a result, the American people have lost confidence in their tax system. Incremental change is not enough. We have tried that. It has resulted in failure and more complexity. We need real reform, a total overhaul of the Tax Code. We need to restore that confidence. That is what this bill is all about. It simply says that the sun will set on the Internal Revenue Code as we know it on December 31, 2002. It gives Congress 3 years to debate and develop a new tax system. It would simply force Congress to do in a timely manner what we need, no, what needs to be done, to pull the Federal income tax code out by its roots and replace it with an income tax system that is fair and understandable. This bill will help us do that. I urge my colleagues to support and vote for H.R. 3097. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Foley).

Mr. BUNNING. No, it absolutely is not. It is in response to the fact that we have balanced the budget and the Republican Congress is the persons that passed the balanced budget bill.

Mr. BUNNING. I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts.

Mr. BUNNING

Mr. BUNNING. Mr. Speaker, I move a call of the House. A call of the House was ordered. The call was taken by electronic device, and the following Members responded to their names: [Roll No. 237]