John Shadegg: “I wanted to join you this evening and express my thoughts about this important piece of legislation and make it clear…”

“I wanted to join you this evening and express my thoughts about this important piece of legislation and make it clear how strongly I believe that this is a good piece of legislation on balance and that it is something we need. Legislation is often difficult and the process by which we get to it is a struggle. It is always a compromise. I think when we address this issue, we are going to hear from some of our colleagues that they are disappointed in some of what is in this legislation and they are disappointed that the President won some battles. I think in assessing that, you need to understand that the President has the veto power and that he was willing this time around to use that power to shut the government down if necessary if we did not agree to some of his provisions. But I think it is extremely important to look at the good in this bill and to focus on that. Let me begin by discussing a disappointment, an aspect of this bill that disappoints me and I know disappoints my friend from Georgia (Mr. Kingston) and is something that we would liked to have seen. We all believe that the American people deserve tax relief.”