David Skaggs: “let me look at another recent example in our collective experience here earlier in this Congress. When we took up the…”

“let me look at another recent example in our collective experience here earlier in this Congress. When we took up the majority's reconciliation bill last fall, I believe as I recall, there was a significant revenue-raising component to that, including changes in the Medicare part B premium. I happen to think that we are going to need to deal with that aspect of the Medicare Program in order to put it on a sound financial footing eventually. I was not one to criticize that very difficult political choice that the majority brought to us at that time. But the amount of money involved in that Medicare proposal, I think over whatever economic timeframe you want to look at, was significantly more than the expatriate tax loophole involves, some tens of billions of dollars. The reconciliation bill including that provision did not muster anything close to two-thirds vote. I think therein lies the problem, and the responsibility that we have to examine the consequences of what you are proposing that we do, not merely to discuss this in terms of the abstract notion that we are fed up with high taxes, but is this workable? If we are going to have a deal with entitlement reform fairly and sensibly, which by most accounts involves asking wealthier Americans to pay more for their health care if they are able to, we are doing to be facing, if this is in the Constitution, a requirement of getting two-thirds.…”