Political Quotes

“I am honored to follow my distinguished colleague from New Hampshire and begin, actually, where she finished. This massive tax cut has indeed so many ticking timebombs that are unknown at the moment because it has been rushed and rammed through this body, as well as the House, without the kind of regular order that should be given--the intense scrutiny and attention that is due a historic, massive measure of this kind. The idea that it has regular order is absolutely absurd. If this is regular order, it is surely regular order lite. There have barely been the most cursory of hearings--barely an excuse for hearings--no real markup, no real opportunity for the public to be heard, no real scrutiny of the complicated and numerous provisions that will affect people for years, decades, maybe generations to come. The last tax cut was in 1985. The last so-called reform, passed in the mid-1980s, involved scores of hearings, meetings, and sessions for the public to be heard, dwarfing, making a mockery of this process. This process has been, in fact, a mockery of democracy. It is a classic bait and switch. It is a promise that is unfulfilled--a tax cut, initially, for people, which then disappears after a couple of years, when the wealthy continue to enjoy their tax cut. There are winners and losers in this measure. Let's be very blunt. The winners are the wealthy. The losers are the middle class. The winners are special interests. The losers are the American people.…”