Heidi Alexander: “I see the principal leaders for this legislation, Senators Durbin and Enzi, and I congratulate them for their…”

“I see the principal leaders for this legislation, Senators Durbin and Enzi, and I congratulate them for their leadership. What they have been able to do is to come up with a simple, 11-page bill that has two words for a theme--States rights or 10th Amendment. We have a majority of Senators on the Democratic side and a majority of Senators on the Republican side who have indicated their support for it. They voted twice in support of it. I talked with Senators at the Republican luncheon today, and at least one Member told me he had a couple of amendments, and I encouraged him to bring them on down because we want amendments. We want this to be discussed on the Senate floor. Senator Reid, the majority leader, has said there will be amendments. I have a fishing amendment I would like to get passed somewhere, but I will not offer it on this bill because I want to offer amendments that are related to marketplace fairness. But there are a number of ideas that are, and they ought to be discussed. I wonder if, before I finish, I might ask the distinguished Senator from Illinois a question. Maybe I am just sensitive to this as a former Governor, as I know the occupant of the Chair is as well, but I wonder if the Senator from Illinois finds it a little ironic there are some people in Washington who say they do not trust the States to make decisions about their own tax structure.…”