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ReleasesOctober 30, 2000
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As President Clinton continues banging his bully pulpit and threatening to veto bipartisan legislation that contains repeal of the 102-year-old federal telephone excise tax, U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA-39) denounced his partisan tactics.
"I find it unbelievable that President Clinton would threaten to veto legislation funding major functions of our government, potentially shutting it down, over the repeal of a federal phone tax that was first imposed to fund the Spanish-American War more than a century ago," Royce said.
Royce was a cosponsor of the bipartisan Telephone Excise Tax Repeal Act [H.R.3916] which was passed by a vote of 420-2 in May. The measure was inserted into a larger appropriations bill that funds the Department of the Treasury, the U.S. Post Office, the Legislative Branch, and other areas of government.
"President Clinton really needs to concentrate on the last months of his presidency and plot a course that will allow him to leave gracefully as other presidents have, not thrust himself into the spotlight one last time by injecting raw partisanship into delicate budget negotiations. On the eve of Halloween, the President has decided to offer the American taxpayer a trick rather than a justified treat," Royce said.
Congress first enacted a telephone excise tax in order to help pay for the 1898 Spanish-American War, which lasted only five months. At the time, this "temporary" tax amounted to a penny on long-distance phone calls costing more than 15 cents. Over the years, the federal phone tax has survived efforts to phase it out and scale it back. A Democrat Congress made it a permanent 3 percent tax on telecommunications services in 1990.
"The Spanish-American War ended more than 100 years ago; this tax should have ended with it," Royce said. "We must send a message that no longer will 'temporary taxes' be permanent. Kill this unnecessary tax. Do not veto it, Mr. President."
Of the 105.4 million households in America, 99.1 million (94 percent) have telephone service. This telephone tax repeal would provide tax relief to every one of those households.