Political Quotes

“I wanted to speak briefly this morning on two subjects. The first concerns an announcement that the Senator from Minnesota, who is presiding as of this moment, and I and Senator Bob Smith made yesterday relating to a constitutional amendment proposal which we are soon going to be introducing in the Senate, which has already been introduced in the House with about 150 cosponsors, which we hope will be quickly adopted by both the House and Senate and sent to the States for ratification, in reference to a constitutional amendment to require a supermajority of two-thirds voting to approve any tax increase at the Federal Government level. We want to do this because of the possibility, and I hope the probability, that some form of simple, single-rate tax reform could be adopted sometime after next January. Some proponents call it a flat tax. But a tax proposal of the kind that I support would include exemptions and certain deductions, so it cannot be properly characterized as a pure flat tax, but a simpler tax rate system with a limited number of deductions and exemptions is the kind of tax reform that most Americans seem very supportive of at this time, and which I hope the Congress will adopt. If that occurs, it will be doubly important for us to ensure that tax rates cannot easily be increased.”