Political Quotes

“Mr. President, this week it seems that the Senate is finally ready to take up and pass a tax extenders bill. Congress' procrastination on tax extenders has been causing a lot of headaches and indigestion to many of my constituents back home in Iowa. Small business owners and farmers want to know whether the enhanced expensing rules under section 179 will be extended so that they can invest in new machinery. Retirees want to know whether they can make a charitable donation from their IRA to meet their required minimum distribution. The renewable energy sector wants to know what investments they should make to increase production. The Senate could have made strides towards answering these questions just this past spring. The Finance Committee acted in a bipartisan fashion to report an extenders package to the floor that would have extended all expiring provisions for 2 years. By all accounts, this package could have been passed by the Senate with broad support on both sides of the aisle. Unfortunately, movement of this package in the Senate stalled in May due to procedural maneuvering on the Senate floor. That maneuvering was meant to prevent votes on all amendments--even those with broad, bipartisan support. With the Senate failing to take action, the hopes of getting the extenders done in a timely fashion faded last spring.…”