Bill Nelson: “before the chairman of the committee uses the time reserved for her, I wish to respond to my friend from Oklahoma--and…”

“before the chairman of the committee uses the time reserved for her, I wish to respond to my friend from Oklahoma--and he is my friend--by telling him why I think he is wrong on this issue and telling him by way of a compliment to him because the Senator from Oklahoma and I, the Senator from Florida, had worked together, he being much more prominent in the efforts, to bring the budget under control 1 year ago. In having discussions across the aisle--often private discussions-- what started as a rump group known as the Gang of 6 that grew and blossomed into what, in effect, became a group of 45--and I think that was the number of us who stood in the Senate Press Gallery in the summer 1 year ago; it was the summer of 2011--and we said we wanted a big $4 trillion-plus budget deficit, and we pointed out ways we could get there. Indeed, what this Senator has said--and I have heard other Republican Senators who feel and have said very close to identical things publicly; and I will name one and that is Senator Lindsey Graham and he stated it on ``Meet the Press'' a couple months ago--that the way we get there is producing revenue through reform of the Tax Code by going after all the tax preferences which have ballooned out of control since the last tax reform bill in 1986, that this Senator, then a young Congressman, voted for, to the point that tax expenditures, tax preferences are now $14 trillion over 10 years. A lot of them have outlived their usefulness.…”