Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I think this is a question of how cleverly--or perhaps deviously--the majority party constructed the rules of the House with regard to a test as to whether presenting a family earning $80,000 a year with a bill for $3,000 from the IRS is a tax increase or not. It would take some pretty fancy tap dancing to say that a $3,000 or $4,000 bill from the IRS to a middle class family is not a tax increase. If it looks like a tax increase, if it smells like a tax increase, it is a tax increase. And it is contrary to the rules of the House to allow a tax increase in this kind of bill. Now, I understand there's some fancy dancing and semantics around it, but I think the American people and the voters of this country have a great deal of common sense with regard to this matter. When you get a $3,000 bill from the IRS that you have to pay--and if you don't pay, as my colleagues on the other side of the aisle liked to point out during the debate on the health care bill, you could face going to prison-- that's a tax increase. That's a tax increase. What this bill does is tell hundreds of thousands of middle class families, particularly right on that cusp--we talk about this 400 percent of poverty rate, again, that's an arbitrary level, but it's a real level for families; it's X dollars.…”