Political Quotes

“I want to thank David Obey for offering this budget amendment, even if I fundamentally disagree with it. I have great respect for Mr. Obey, and I think he makes a valuable contribution to this House. And the Obey amendment is important, because it clarifies the distinctions between the two parties. As then candidate Ronald Reagan said to then President Jimmy Carter, ``There they go again.'' The Obey amendment is a return to the traditional Democratic philosophy of tax and spend. If the Democrats were to create their own ``Contract with America'', the first two promises would be tax more and spend more. This budget amendment raises taxes by $18 billion in the first year, more than $250 billion in ten years. These tax increases are aimed at the job creators, the entrepreneurs, the small business owners. This amendment raises taxes on these job creators by about five percent. Increasing costs on a business by five percent is the difference between success and failure. If you increase costs on a small business by five percent, the small business owner has two choices. They can pass the cost increase onto consumers by raising prices. Or they can cut costs elsewhere. Because of stiff price competition from our competitors, the usual result is cutting costs elsewhere. That means a small business owner won't hire that extra worker. The Heritage Foundation says that a tax cut of this size will kill 130,000 jobs in the next year.”