Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today, our body starts debate on expiring tax and health provisions. Around this Capitol building, the nickname of these items is called extenders. I wish to make a couple of points on the process before I get into the substance of the substitute. My first point will reflect on how much the Democratic leadership has avoided a simpler, clearer, bipartisan approach. My second point will consider all of the other time-sensitive, unfinished tax legislation that appears to be abandoned with only a few weeks left in this session. My first point deals with a conscious decision to use a partisan process for bipartisan issues. What I find surprising is that we are taking up a package that, like the HIRE Act jobs bill of a few weeks ago, absolutely belongs to the bicameral House and Senate Democratic leadership. It was negotiated between House and Senate Democratic leaders, with some input from their tax-writing committees and staff. These discussions occurred entirely behind closed doors. As far as I know, it was a Democrats-only discussion. It is not a conference agreement, where things are worked out in a sophisticated conference committee made up of people from the House and Senate. Then, in addition, at the very last minute, the compromise took on the properties of an amoeba.…”