Political Quotes

“the Grassley amendment that is before us today expresses the sense of the Senate about a wide array of issues, about nine different issues in all. I agree with some of the ideas expressed in the amendment, but I have serious reservations about others. Mr. President, among the ideas I favor are the provisions of the amendment that express support for additional capital-gains and death-tax relief. Although it is unclear from the language of the amendment what form that relief should take, I hope Senator Grassley would agree with me that a good approach on capital gains would be something like the 70-percent exclusion that would be allowed by S. 73, the Capital Gains Reform Act, which I introduced last year. That is the same exclusion proposed by President John Kennedy some 35 years ago. Preferably, death-tax relief would mean outright elimination of the death tax, as proposed in S. 75, the Family Heritage Preservation Act. That bill, which I introduced last year, is cosponsored by 30 other Senators. Fast-track trade authority is something that I have voted for in the past, and I will vote for it again. Hopefully, we will have the chance to do that before the year is out. And I have long supported legislation that would provide full deductibility for health insurance for the self-employed. There is no good reason why people who are self-employed are singled out for disparate treatment when full deductibility is allowed for all other employees.”