O.C. Delegation Exults Over Tax Vote

If there was one “contract with America” item that was most eagerly supported by members of the Orange County delegation, it was the tax-cuts package voted on by the House on Wednesday.

“We saved the best for last,” said Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad), referring to the 10th item in the “contract.”

He rejected as “poppycock” the criticism from Democrats that proposed federal budget cuts were designed to provide “welfare for the rich.”

“I would like to . . . remind those on the other side of the aisle that Republicans are providing more benefits for lower-income people but at a lower cost. We are not cutting benefits, just bureaucracy,” Packard said.

Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) said the capital gains tax cut will relieve the burden on small businesses and help create jobs, while “75% of the family tax credit will benefit families with incomes below $75,000 per year. I don’t think that’s the rich,” Cox said.

The plan also increases the income senior citizens under 70 may earn and still receive full Social Security benefits--from $11,280 to $30,000 by the year 2000--which Cox called a “matter of fairness.”

“I don’t think $30,000 (annual income for the elderly) is well-off,” Cox said.

Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) called approval of the tax package “a vote for seniors, for families and for jobs. It will repeal the tax increase that (President) Clinton imposed on seniors in 1993,” he said, referring to the President’s deficit-reduction plan.

A $5,000 tax credit on adoption costs proposed early on by Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) also was approved by the House. The overall package, he added, would directly help voters in his district.

“My constituency is basically blue-collar Democrat and blue-collar Republican, and they are going to see a relief from this, particularly those who have children,” Dornan said.

The middle-income tax cuts, he added, are “right on the money for Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Anaheim,” the cities in his district.

Although Democrats criticized the tax cuts as “ill-timed” when compared to the need to cut the federal deficit, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) said Congress could “not afford not to have a tax cut.”

“Giving the American people $500 (tax credit per child) more to raise their children, and at the same time trying to cut back on (federal government) expenditures, makes a lot of sense to people,” Rohrabacher said. “Even if they have to pay $25 more on a student loan, I am sure they would rather have $500 to raise their child.”