I voted against the Senate-passed version of the farm bill because it lacked the fiscal discipline required of Congress during a time of deficit spending and exponential growth of the Federal Government. Unfortunately, the conference…

First, I compliment Senator Warner and Senator Webb for several weeks ago crafting legislation to provide some changes in our GI benefits for educational purposes. I support an alternative measure which has been developed in the weeks…

I believe that while the Domenici bill does not answer all of the questions with regard to energy production, it is a very good start because, first and foremost, it addresses the production side. We know there is a huge demand and not…

A back-of-the-envelope calculation using the same data shows that raising the top four marginal rates would increase taxes for 28 million Americans, increasing revenue on a static basis $37 billion this year and $111 billion over the next…

It has been commonplace for critics of the war in Iraq to minimize, if not actually dismiss entirely, the links between Saddam Hussein and terrorists generally and al-Qaida specifically. This is part of a systematic effort by some…

The Joint Forces Command report sheds light on the relationship between Saddam Hussein and Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's second in command. I quote: Saddam supported groups either associated directly with al Qaeda (such as the…

But I would like to talk briefly about that amendment and indicate that it would be offered on behalf of Senator McCain, my colleague from Arizona, as well as other Senators, some of whom may want to also speak to it briefly. We all know…

in our country over the last couple of hundred years, you never know what party is going to control the Senate or the Presidency. As a result, in doing the people's business, both parties have operated somewhat by tradition with respect to…

I say to my colleague there are going to be efforts apparently to hold this war funding hostage to other funding requests. For example, one of our colleagues said we are going to look at the supplemental not only for the $190 billion for…

that is an extremely important question because there is a lot of rhetoric about this war. The question is, What is the action line here, what can Congress do? Actually, it is a question of what Congress must do. As I understand it…

I think the Senator from South Carolina makes an exceedingly important point here, and that is that our theory, which was that the Muslim world itself had to reject this virulent, militant Islamist approach, which is manifested in the…

this amendment is actually very simple, and I think it will be another one of the things that we can do to help promote home ownership and the transfer of property to make it less expensive for people and, frankly, to advance a policy that…

in the Senate, we are surrounded by history. The same can be said of the Capitol itself and, of course, of Washington, DC. It is very humbling to think that when we travel around the Nation's Capital, we are following the paths that many…

the problem is we are in the game here, spending the same dollar three or four times, it appears. Under the Sanders amendment, it is paid for by raising taxes another $32.5 billion, ostensibly from the rich; that is to say, by raising…

last year this amendment received 56 votes, Democratic and Republican votes. It was then in the form of a motion to instruct conferees, but the provisions are the same. This is the amendment on the estate tax that has a top rate not to…

the question here is whether we are serious about estate tax reform. We went through the exercise last year and passed it in the budget, and we didn't do anything. We are going to repeat that same thing this year unless we commit ourselves…

just to conclude, the budget says expiring provisions are accommodated, but I don't think the Senate is going to raise $50 billion in new taxes to pay for these, to pay permanently for 1 or 2 years of these extenders. In fact, in recent…

we need to defeat this amendment. This is not the usual AMT fix we are used to. This actually repeals rates of the AMT that were put into effect in 1993. The reality is we are not going to increase taxes in order to pay for the relief that…

I would say to the chairman he is correct. I cannot verify the number 7,000 the chairman is talking about, but I can verify the number I am talking about. The Joint Committee on Taxation projects that 11,800 estates would be required to…

If I may respond, as an expert in the Tax Code, the Senator from New Hampshire knows the technical name of the doctrine which applies in this case, except we have made an exception in the case of death. If you are robbed or if your house…

I appreciate that. In suggesting another reason for this, I do not think I am wrong in that, but I do acknowledge that certainly what the chairman of the Budget Committee has said is true. I appreciate his acknowledgment of our courtesy…

It is actually not quite that. It is $5 million. The way this is written, if one spouse, let's say, the person who is not running the business, dies first, you can plan so you can get most of the effect of $10 million in the unified credit…

The rate would be reduced from 55 percent, if we don't do anything, to 35. I believe the majority proposal is 45. This would make the top rate no higher than 35 percent.

As a matter of tax policy, I will answer my colleague, we can differ about the kind of taxes that should apply to economic activity, but we do agree that is the kind of activity that should be taxed, if it is on a sale, if it is on income…

The answer is yes. If I could expand on that with a true story, some friends of my wife and mine in Phoenix had a printing business. The head of the household came out from New York in the late 1940s and from scratch built this business…