Political Quotes

“well, here we are again. For the 4th year in a row--the majority will take the House through the motions of attempting to pass a Constitutional Amendment requiring two-thirds supermajority of the House and Senate in order to pass a tax cut. Today is the Republican equivalent of Ground Hog Day. Each year at this time the Republican leadership comes out of its hole, sees its shadow, and dusts off this proposed Constitutional Amendment that essentially says, ``stop us before we tax again!'' I said the majority is taking us through the motions because this is the same bill they've brought to the Floor in 1996, 1997 and 1998. Each time, the bill goes down to defeat. The majority knows it won't pass again today, but they can't help themselves. The irony here is that there is actually broad support on both sides of the aisle for cutting taxes, not raising them. There is some difference of opinion on who's taxes should be cut. I would argue that the lion's share of any tax relief should be targeted to working American families and not the very rich. The other key debate concerns Social Security and Medicare. In my view, it is simply irresponsible to move ahead with a $778 billion tax cut before taking action to assure the long-term financial health of Social Security and Medicare. The budget surplus gives us a unique opportunity to address these programs. We should save the entire surplus until we've taken care of Social Security and Medicare.”