Political Quotes

“Well, I say to Senator Hatch, the only thing I would add to the good work you put out there is maybe to say a little bit more about the estate tax; that is, if we do not do anything--as you see from this chart, you can see the House passed death tax reform but not the Senate. Obviously, we do not have a final bill. If we do not get a final bill by the end of this year, instead of having no estate tax like this year or a $3.5 million exemption like last year, we are going to have only a million-dollar exemption and a 55-percent tax rate. That is going to be catastrophic on small business. It is going to be catastrophic in the rural areas. So I hope that emphasizes the importance of getting something done on the estate tax ahead of time. The only other thing I would add, because the Senator did such a good job of saying what the economic consequences are, if we let the biggest tax increase in the history of the country happen by sunset December 31, and then that means you go back to the tax rates and tax policy of the year 2000, it is going to be very destructive on job creation for small businesses and very destructive as far as bringing the certainty that businesses, particularly small businesses, need if they are going to hire people. I had a news conference last month in my State, and I brought in some small businesspeople.…”