Political Quotes

“Mr. Van Hollen raises such an important point. What is being done here is totally inconsistent, and I will come to that a bit later, but what is really important today about this bill is not what is being done here, but what is not being done here. Mr. Van Hollen points out how inconsistent this bill is. But no matter how inconsistent, it is going nowhere. And it should go nowhere. Essentially, what it does is to make permanent what has always been considered temporary. Bonus depreciation, which has been temporarily enacted during the previous two recessions to help assist the economy during the short term--that is what it has been--allows companies to write off investments more quickly than normal, providing them an incentive to make capital investments now rather than later. And that incentive actually disappears when the provision is made permanent. That is why CRS has said its temporary nature ``is critical to its effectiveness.'' Secondly, it is unpaid for. Talk about consistency, talk about a budget bill that talks about the importance of deficit reduction, and here you have the Republicans proposing a bill that would add $287 billion in debt. That would bring the total of the bills that the Republicans have brought forth here to over $500 billion. When all is said and done, House Republicans will have added more than $1 trillion to the deficit by permanently extending a select group of corporate tax cuts.…”