[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 7] [House] [Page 8980] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]THE WAR'S MAKING YOU POOR ACT The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Grayson) is recognized for 5 minutes. Mr. GRAYSON. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to address my comments not only to you tonight but also to the one-third of America that makes less than $35,000 a year. Some people call you lower middle class; some people call you poor. There are those among you who are retired. There are those among you who are working poor Americans. Some of you make the minimum wage. There are those among you who also are handicapped, people who have no ability to enter the workforce and have to rely upon charity in one form or another. In any event, there is one-third of America, one-third, that makes less than $35,000 a year, and my comments are addressed to you tonight. You are the ones who Jesse Jackson used to refer to as ``dispossessed,'' ``the despised,'' and in our political system, the damned. And you are sometimes treated that way, but more commonly, you are treated by our political system as disregarded. There are over 5,000 bills that have been introduced in the House of Representatives since I was sworn in last year. Only a tiny fraction of them offer you any relief. And tonight, I want to point out to you one that does. It's my bill, H.R. 5353, The War's Making You Poor Act. Now, I could talk to you a little bit tonight about various aspects of this bill, but there's one aspect in particular that I want to tell you about; the one that that relates to you directly. What this bill does is, for you, it eliminates Federal income tax entirely. This bill makes the first $35,000 of every American's income tax-free, and in your case, since you make less than $35,000, it eliminates Federal taxation on you. And to illustrate that, we have this chart here, and as the chart does indicate, as you can see for yourself, your taxes under H.R. 5353 are a big fat zero. Zilch. Nada. Gornish. Nothing. And I hope that that will become permanent. This is the biggest tax cut bill that you are going to see this year. It would have been the biggest tax cut bill if we'd introduced it last year. And I could tell you this bill gives us a nudge towards peace. I could tell you that this bill helps us to eliminate wasteful defense spending. I could tell you also that this bill reduces the deficit by $16 billion and puts us back on the track to eliminate our deficit and our debt. I could tell you all of that, but what I am telling you now is this: It eliminates taxes on you. Now, you may not participate very much in the political system. Certainly, the political system does very little for you, so I can understand that. You don't have the ability to contribute to candidates because you have no money. You don't have the ability to, in many cases, vote because voting takes place on Tuesdays, and you work on Tuesdays. So you have to ask yourself, what do you have to do to get this bill, H.R. 5353, passed? And I'm going to give you some hints. I'm going to tell you what you might be able to do to get this bill passed to eliminate taxation on you. Let's see. You can call the main number here at the House of Representatives. It's 202-224-3121, and you, as an American, can ask to speak to your Congressman. I suggest that you do that, and I suggest that you tell your Congressman that you want your Congressman to vote for H.R. 5353. Or, if you have an Internet connection, you can go to the Web site here at the House, www.house.gov. And at that Web site, you can find out how to get in touch with your Congressman and tell your Congressman that you want to support H.R. 5353 and you want him or her to do the same. And maybe somehow, in some conceivable way, if all of America--or at least the one-third that this bill would eliminate taxation for--got together and demanded justice, demanded that this yoke be tossed off your back and that you be free of Federal taxation, and if this bill passed, then you can say at that point: Free at last; Free at last; Thank God Almighty, I am free at last. ____________________