As part of my dissertation work, I’ve been looking through old committee reports about tax legislation. Usually these things include rationales for why they are making changes to existing law. If the legislation is especially important, committee reports also include dissenting views or additional commentary about the legislation.

Attached to this post is some additional commentary for the Revenue Act of 1978 authored by Rep. Andy Jacobs (D-IN). By all accounts he seems to have been a good old fashioned liberal. In this case, however, he felt the need to express his opinion about this legislation through the lense of Uncle Sam. I wonder how common this stuff is. I know that former (and disgraced) Rep. Jim Traficant (D-OH) used to say crazy stuff in his one minute speeches, but this is a new level of dedication to the medium.