Chuck Grassley: “I am going to address the Rockefeller amendment that is before us, and I think I can speak to what the Senator from…”

“I am going to address the Rockefeller amendment that is before us, and I think I can speak to what the Senator from Michigan, the Senator from Florida, and the Senator from West Virginia have raised as legitimate concerns. There is as much urgency about taxes as there is prescription drugs and Medicare. We probably haven't had as many hearings this year on Medicare and prescription drugs as we have taxes, but over the last 12 months we have had a lot more hearings in the Senate Finance Committee on Medicare and prescription drugs than we have on taxes. The reason we are having taxes up before prescription drugs is simply that the Tax Code was written in 1916 and there have been a lot of changes to it since then. For the most part, it is a matter of just changing a few words here or there. On the other hand, I have to admit it is complicated by adding a lot of new language. But when you are dealing with the legislation we are dealing with on this tax bill, it is not a complicated item to change the Tax Code to some extent. Maybe a little bit on the estate tax provisions we have here, but otherwise it is a matter of fine-tuning. When it comes to prescription drugs, we are writing a whole new program.”