When barbeque grills are fired up this Labor Day, people’s minds are more on relaxation than work. That is the way it should be, because Americans are among the hardest-working people on Earth and deserve some time off.

But while we relax, it is a good time to take stock of the importance of work and the role it plays in our lives. My parents worked all their lives, and brought me up to appreciate the value of an honest job. They also taught me that while work is important, other things in life, such as family and friends, rank higher. Yet at the beginning of this new century, despite all of our labor-saving appliances, faster airplanes and cell phones, most Americans feel we have less time than ever to spend for activities and persons they care about.

Whether we are single parents, or two parents who both hold down jobs, we seem to be running faster just to stay in place. There are many explanations, but the easiest to find is the one found on our pay stubs: the payroll tax.

Because taxes have been hiked gradually over time, most Americans have become accustomed to the burden, and they do not realize that state, local, and national taxes combined are now at their highest level since World War II. The latest increase took place in 1993 when Al Gore cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate for the Clinton-Gore tax hike. That record tax hike provoked a voter backlash, and put the Republicans into the majority in Congress for the first time in forty years.

The new majority was elected to pass tax relief, and set out to implement tax reform. This is hard work because of the bitter opposition of most Democrats. The pro-tax Democrats argue that tax relief is "spending" or a "giveaway." We Republicans, on the other hand, believe that taxation is "taking" from Americans, which means tax relief is simply taking less from American workers. We believe that if working Americans spend less time earning money to pay for Washington programs, they will have more time or money to spend on family and friends.

This belief explains our effort to balance the budget. Since excessive taxation is driven by excessive spending we had to start by reforming programs and cutting expenditures. The result has exceeded all expectation. In 1995, the Congressional Budget Office predicted over $3 trillion in red ink over the next ten years. Today, the same office reports positive cash flow of up to $4.5 trillion over the next ten years.

Because of this good news, we wanted to take less from taxpayers. We passed a repeal of a telephone tax implemented a century ago to pay for the Spanish American War. We also repealed the extra tax President Clinton imposed on Social Security recipients who want to work after retirement. These were signed into law.

We also passed a bill to end the tax discrimination against married couples. If you’re married, you and your spouse pay $1,400 more in taxes each year than if you had stayed single. It’s unfair. We voted to end this tax discrimination, and targeted the help toward working families, but President Clinton vetoed the bill anyway. We aren’t giving up. We’re going to work to override that veto.

We’re also working hard to eliminate another unfair tax targeted at those who want to pass the family farm or business onto their children and grandchildren. The death tax claims as much as 55 percent of the value of a family farm or business and is the primary cause for the failure or sale of family businesses when they are passed down. Again, House Republicans are working hard to eliminate this unfair tax. We’re calling on President Clinton to work with us by signing it into law.

This Labor Day, all Americans should reflect on our work and how we shall use the fruits of our work. Will we succumb to the temptation to splurge our positive cash flow? This is the approach being advanced by many Democratic candidates. I hope Americans will join me and my colleagues in setting aside sufficient resources to honor our large obligations to Social Security and Medicare, take care of important needs, and return some of the excess taxation to America’s wage earners. When we do this, we should heed Alan Greenspan’s advice to look at tax relief in the areas of capital gains and marginal rates. By providing this type of tax relief, we will reinforce the economy and contribute to the continued growth of the jobs we celebrate every Labor Day.

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