Political Quotes

“First of all, my colleagues probably know that my friend from Utah is going to advance as the incoming ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, and I congratulate him on that. I know he is going to do a very good job. One needs only to look to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to assess the harm that could be done to the economy if we don't get this tax legislation passed. According to the Congressional Budget Office, not addressing these very time-sensitive tax issues will reduce economic growth by as much as 1.7 percent on average for the years 2011 and 2012. If Members didn't hear that, it is not some political leader saying that economic growth will be harmed by 1.7 percent; it is the nonpartisan experts in the Congressional Budget Office saying that if we don't pass these tax bills, economic growth is going to get hit 1.7 percent. Some private forecasters put that hit even higher--at 2 percent. When we consider that the last report has the economy growing at an annualized rate of 2 percent, then it is quite obvious. We can see that this single failure to prevent these great big tax increases could wipe out what little economic growth is currently occurring. I don't know how policymakers can sleep at night, let alone be so casual when we haven't dealt with these time-sensitive tax issues at a time when coming back here we heard nothing from our constituents other than concern about the economy, about jobs, and about the legacy of debt we are leaving.”