Asa Hutchinson: “like Senator Lott, our majority leader, I am most reluctant to offer this amendment in opposition to the sentiments of…”

“like Senator Lott, our majority leader, I am most reluctant to offer this amendment in opposition to the sentiments of the chairman of the Finance Committee. Likewise, I have the utmost respect for my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. I want to respond to a couple of things they said, my colleague from Wisconsin and my colleague from New Jersey, who, to me, when they talk about this proposal being something radical, what I hear in response is the politics of fear. They say, ``Well, we're not going to have a code, we're not going to have a Tax Code.'' And then, ``We are not going to have the FDA, we're not going to have FAA, we're not going to have roads, we're not going to have Social Security.'' By the way, Social Security is omitted entirely from this bill. It is not even a factor. But we hear the politics of fear--the sky is falling. Let me assure my colleagues, there is nothing as certain as the Sun rising in the morning but that this Senate will have a Tax Code come 2002. I assure you that this Senate and this House will not allow this Government to go without revenue. My goodness, if you love this Tax Code so much and you like the loopholes and you like the deductions and you like the exemptions and you like the exclusions so much, then you can propose that we reenact this Tax Code in total just like it is, and there you go.…”