On the recordDecember 4, 2010
I think what we have just heard illustrates why it has been so hard for us to reach a bipartisan agreement on how to resolve the tax issues all Americans face in just 4 short weeks. Last Tuesday, a group of us went down to the White House to visit with the President, the Vice President, and some of his folks in a spirit of cooperation, I must say, and a spirit in which the President reached out to us and said: All right, the elections are over. My party didn't do so well, but it is time now for us to get together and work together, and the first piece of business we have to resolve is this tax issue. We have to figure out how we are going to fund the government for the remaining 10 months of the fiscal year, and we have to figure out how we are going to prevent Americans from getting a big tax increase come January 1. What I would like for you all to do-- talking both to Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate--is to sit down and try to negotiate this in a bipartisan spirit that truly would give credit to the Congress and give the American people some confidence that they can move forward with some degree of clarity about what their tax obligations are going to be. We agreed. The President asked us if we would be willing to sit down, literally immediately, to begin these discussions. We said yes.
