Political Quotes

“I rise to speak about amendment No. 156. I am offering this amendment to the majority budget to ensure that tax reform is revenue neutral and the money available to do tax reform is not used for spending, as the underlying resolution proposes. I am pleased to be joined in offering this amendment by a number of my colleagues: Senator Enzi, Leader McConnell, Senator Cornyn, the finance ranking member Senator Hatch, as well as Senators Burr, Roberts, Portman, Isakson, Thune, Coats, and Rubio. In order to ensure tax reform does not become a tax-raising exercise, this amendment eliminates the nearly $1 trillion in new revenue and the reconciliation instructions called for in the majority's budget. It further creates a deficit-neutral reserve fund for progrowth, revenue- neutral tax reform. The budget reconciles the Finance Committee to come up with nearly $1 trillion in revenue. I spoke last night how difficult that is to do unless you want to tax middle-income Americans. This reconciliation instruction, in addition to raising a lot of money to spend more, dashes the hopes that the Finance Committee can take a bipartisan approach to tax reform. First, it puts in place an arbitrary deadline that requires the Finance Committee to produce a bill by October 1 of this year. Tax reform will be a long and difficult process.…”