Political Quotes

“I am from all of Illinois. The Presiding Officer must face the same thing in the State of Florida with your loyalties for sports teams. You cannot win in the State of Illinois. No matter where you go you will run into opposition--whether a Cardinals, Cubs, or White Sox fan. I think we have made that issue. At least my position on that issue is clear as we can. I say in closing, and I certainly invite the Senator from Missouri to respond, we ought to ask ourselves the basic question: If you have a business in America that is unsuccessful, and the business has a loss in one given year, we provide in our Tax Code that business can carry that loss forward from the year that it was experienced, so next year's profits can be reduced accordingly. Your tax liability is reduced accordingly. It is a carry-forward provision for business losses. It seems to me consistent to say that those corporations which have extraordinary profit taking--as we see with these major oil companies-- would be subject to additional taxes. I am sure the Senator from Missouri disagrees with me. But we have now seen virtually--I am trying to figure the calculation--roughly 30 percent increase in profits for the major oil companies in the United States of America, over the last 6 months, over last year. Last year was a big year for them. Last year, in the same 6-month period, they had about $39 billion in profits. This was with $40-a-barrel oil. This year it is up 30 percent over last year's profits. Why?…”