[Pages H2511-H2512]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TAX RELIEF FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS

  (Mr. WALZ asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WALZ. Mr. Speaker, last week I had the opportunity to travel 
around my southern Minnesota district talking to local business owners 
on the best ways to grow and revitalize our economy. Businesses, 
working families, including the Mayo Clinic centered in my district, 
talked about the improvements to the health care system was a good 
first step in moving that. They also explained to me that the policies 
on tax relief that you heard here help.
  Now be very clear about this. If you think it's a game of he said, he 
said and back and forth and the pundits on TV can tell one way to 
think, this is a

[[Page H2512]]

very simple proposition. This Congress has cut taxes for the middle 
class more than any Congress in history.
  Go do your own taxes, compare them side by side, apples to apples, 
and you'll see that's true. What that means is 98 percent of southern 
Minnesota has benefited from the working class tax cuts.
  Families and students are eligible for up to $2,500 in tax savings. 
First-time home buyers got $8,000 to buy their homes--others, 6,500--
revitalizing the housing market.
  Taxpayers are eligible for making their homes energy efficient and 
growing the renewable economy. By enacting these job-saving incentives, 
small local businesses can grow and expand and inject consumer demand 
in the economy. Those are facts, not political myth.

                          ____________________