Washington, D.C.--Making the process of raising taxes more difficult is what U.S. Congressman Frank Lucas (OK-6) voted to support yesterday on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. House Joint Resolution (H.J.Res.) 111, the "Tax Limitation Constitutional Amendment" would have amended the Constitution by requiring a two-thirds majority vote in the House and Senate anytime a vote is taken on legislation that would result in a tax increase. The Constitutional amendment failed to receive a supermajority with a 238-186, 45 votes short of two-thirds needed to pass.

"We need to make it harder for the government to raise taxes," Lucas said. AFour out of the last five major tax increases in Congress have passed with less than a 2/3 majority with a cost to taxpayers of approximately $666 billion. Of those four tax increases, three passed with less than 54 percent support.

"Families paid just 5 percent of income in federal taxes in 1934," Lucas continued. AToday, the average family pays over 20 percent of their income in federal taxes--and that's excluding payroll taxes and local and state taxes. Federal taxes, alone, are at their highest since WWII.

"And when growth in taxes slows, there is more money left on the individual spending/saving level," Lucas said. "And that is what creates more jobs, greater economic health in the nation as a whole, and more money in the American taxpayer's pocket."

H.J. Res. 111 would have allowed Congress to waive the supermajority requirement to pass a tax increase (1) during a period of declared war between the U.S. and another country, or (2) when Congress and the president enact a resolution stating that the U.S. is engaged in a military conflict which threatens national security.

Lucas is a cosponsor of this legislation and has cosponsored similar legislation that has come before the House during this Congress.

"Fourteen states--including Oklahoma--have now adopted some type of supermajority requirement for tax increases," Lucas said. "I believe the federal government should do the same, and I will continue to support prudent legislation to accomplish this each time it comes to the House floor."