EMERSON SAYS MAJOR TAX BILL IS IN WORKS

The handwriting is on the wall: "A major tax bill is coming down the pike," U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson predicted Saturday.

Missouri's 8th District congressman said there's little Republicans can do, particularly on the House side, to block such legislation. The Republicans hold 176 of the 435 seats in the House.

The Democratic-controlled House Ways and Means Committee approved the major tax increase legislation on a 24-14, party-line vote Thursday.

It's estimated that a typical family of four will pay about $400 a year more and upper-income Americans can expect to fork over at least five or six times that in the name of deficit reduction.

The tax increase would provide about $246 billion to reduce the deficit over five years.

"It's going to wind up being a tax, tax, tax bill," the Cape Girardeau Republican told a group of six area realtors at a Saturday morning meeting at the Drury Lodge.

"I don't know of any Republican who will vote for this bill," said Emerson. But he said the Democrats have the votes to pass the legislation in the House.

Emerson said the measure could run into stiffer resistance in the Senate where "a minority can stop odious things from happening."

Part of the problem in the House, he said, is that the Democrats control the Ways and Means Committee and two other key committees by a 2-to-1 margin.

The Democratic leadership through the Rules Committee controls how every piece of legislation will be considered. Under a "closed rule," legislation can be considered without allowing for any amendments, Emerson said.

He added that this occurs frequently in the House. "This is not very healthy," said Emerson. "It means the minority cannot offer amendments to modify bills."

Emerson warned that the Democratic leadership in Washington is looking at all sorts of taxes.

"There is no source of revenue to liberals that is sacrosanct," he said.

"They think they've done us a favor by cutting the barge tax from a 500 percent increase to a 250 percent increase," said Emerson.

"It is going to devastate the barge industry, which is so important to our economic vitality," said Emerson.

A 250 percent tax hike for the barge industry will amount to an added burden of $5,000 a day for one tow pushing 12 barges.

"They cannot sweeten this bill enough for me to buy it," said Emerson.

At Saturday's meeting, realtors said they would like to see the capital gains tax reduced. But Emerson said there's insufficient political support in Washington for such a move.

He said there's a popular misconception that cutting the capital gains tax would only benefit the rich.

"This has been so whacked to death by the national media and the liberals that I don't think the general public has a very broad understanding of it."

Emerson said: "Seventy-five percent of taxpayers who show capital gains on their returns have incomes of less than $50,000. Almost 17 percent report less than $10,000 in wages and salary.

"The present treatment of capital gains hurts everybody," he said.

Looking ahead, Emerson sees the possibility of Republicans capturing control of the Senate in 1994, "which could put the skids to a lot of this foolishness." Currently, the Republicans hold 43 seats in the Senate.