Political Quotes

“I rise to speak on the much needed topic of tax reform. The high rates and complicated nature of the current Tax Code are burdening individual taxpayers and making businesses less competitive in the global market. That simply has to change. It has been more than 30 years since we have passed major tax reform, and we are well past time. Unfortunately, I recently learned of a serious threat to reforming the Tax Code called alpacas. Now, what do these cute, mild-mannered pets have to do with Federal tax policy? Earlier this year, I issued an oversight report entitled ``Tax Rackets: Outlandish Loopholes to Lower Tax Liabilities.'' That report demonstrated how clever accounting allows nearly anything imaginable to become a writeoff, including alpacas. To illustrate the point, the report outlined how local and Federal tax bills can be sheared by claiming exotic pets--these exotic pets--as livestock and turning backyards into barnyards. That is when the fur really started to fly. Alpaca owners associations that once brazenly touted this tax fleece as a key selling point for the animals now feigned outrage at the suggestion. The association tried to pull the wool over the eyes of taxpayers by retaining a professional PR consultant. They launched a media campaign, inundating my office and others with phone calls, social media messages, and letters with photos of alpacas.…”