Political Quotes

“Something is terribly wrong here. Four in my family are teachers. It is a little thing, but it means everything. It is little. Teachers are able to deduct from their taxes $250 for expenses that they have paid for classroom supplies. Gone. It is gone. If you want to hurt the system, stick it to the teachers. Why would you do that? It is not a big thing. It is a little thing, but it means everything to that classroom. It is the additional paper, the crayons, the chalkboard, whatever. How small is that? Is that a better deal for America? I don't think so. The casualty loss deduction hurts. Three hundred homes in my district were lost in the October fires. The casualty loss deduction is gone. I don't know, maybe they will be able to rebuild. But when it comes time to address that deficit, I can assure you that they will do everything they can to cut the programs that would support that family as they attempt to rebuild. So you get the program, you lose on the front end, your tax deduction is gone, and you lose on the back end when you go to get mortgage assistance. There has got to be a better plan. There has got to be a better way to do it. Mr. Speaker, over the years, in the last several months, Mr. Cicilline and his colleagues on the Democratic Caucus have put together a program for a better life for Americans. It involves much of what we talked about here.…”