Political Quotes

“There has been much discussion today about shared sacrifice. The notion of shared sacrifice, let's disaggregate that for a moment. We might have shared sacrifice for the next generation. We certainly are contemplating that right now if we fail to act in a responsible manner and address our Nation's debt crisis. Shared sacrifice for the currently unemployed and underemployed in our country, that is what we are contemplating. If our solution to our Nation's problems is merely to increase taxes, we're going to see a decrease in job creation in this country. We will actually see our going the other direction in terms of employment in this country if we implement, as is proposed in this substitute, a tax increase of almost $6 trillion as compared to the budget that we are embracing on the Republican side. We are imposing all manner of unnecessary sacrifice under this substitute on those Americans who are currently working and middle class. It contemplates a tax increase on capital gains and dividends at ordinary income rates. What that means, essentially, is we're thinking of taxing pensions and mutual funds at a rate as high as 49 percent. That would adversely impact our seniors. It's not the responsible thing to do. Here in this proposal, we are also contemplating allowing all tax provisions of the 2001 and 2003 deals to expire for all taxpayers. In other words, this is a proposed tax increase on middle class Americans.…”