Political Quotes

“I begin by noting that the conferees, who are the people on the Ways and Means and Finance Committees, are busy at work trying to iron out the differences between the two bodies. Part of the success of getting the bill to the conference in the first place is attributable to the bipartisan leadership of the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and Max Baucus, the ranking Democrat from Montana. They worked very hard to develop a bill which wasn't all conservative or all liberal, all Republican or Democrat, but which represented views of a substantial part of the membership of the committee on both sides of the aisle. It represents most of what President Bush wanted, but not all, and not quite to the same degree, because by definition it is a compromise. Because of that compromise, and it had support from both sides of the aisle, over the course of the last week there were 45 different attempts to amend the bill. Every one of them failed.”