Political Quotes

“I commend my colleague and neighbor from Arkansas for offering this amendment which will fulfill the promise we have been making to the self-employed in America for a long time. Small business owners, farmers, and others have suffered. Their families have been denied health insurance because the Tax Code has unfairly discriminated against those who are self-employed. They say if you work for a large organization, if it is a taxable organization, it deducts all of the health insurance premiums paid by that organization. The recipient, the employee, does not have to report that health insurance as income. Therefore, there is an incentive to provide health care coverage. I have been involved in debate on health care coverage in this body almost since I came here. We have talked about how we can make sure that every American is covered. What the Senator from Arkansas is doing today in offering this amendment is saying now is the time, we are going to provide 100-percent deductibility for those who are self-employed.”