Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993

Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993

The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, also called the Deficit Reduction Act, modestly raised taxes and succeeded in wiping out the federal budget deficit for the first time in decades.

The bill added two higher taxes brackets: individual income tax rates of 36 percent and 39.6 (previously 31 percent had been the highest bracket). The bill included a 35 percent income tax rate for corporations and 4.3 cents per gallon increase in transportation fuels taxes.

Cry Wolf Quotes

Come next year... we're going to find out whether we have higher deficits, we're going to find out whether we have a slower economy, we're going to find out what's going to happen to interest rates, and it's our bet that this is a job killer.

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Rep. John Kasich (R-OH), GOP News Conference

He is smooth and he is slick and he is a great teleprompter performer, but regardless of how convincing the President may be, this bill is still tax-and-spend, pure and simple. It will not cut the deficit. It will not create jobs. And it will not cut spending. And no matter what you say, you are not going to be able to hide the tax increases in this bill from the American people come next April 15.

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Rep. Jim Bunning (R-KY), Congressional Record.

These new taxes will stifle economic growth, destroy jobs, reduce revenues, and increase the deficit. Economists across the ideological spectrum are convinced that the Clinton tax increases will lead to widespread job loss.

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Rep. Phil Crane (R-IL), Congressional Record.

About the only positive environmental impact this tax package will produce is that in destroying 400,000 American jobs, there will be fewer commuters driving their cars to work each day! Between the Clean Air Act and this proposed tax, this country will lose almost 20 percent of its refinery capacity by the end of the decade. In addition to the refinery problem, the tax is punitive to clean fuels, providing little incentives for industries to switch to more environmentally sound fuels like natural gas.”

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Jack Fields (R-TX), Congressional Record

Evidence