Political Quotes

“if I could be convinced that this piece of legislation was truly the honoring of a user fee, I believe I could give it some support. I believe user fees and trust funds may be a way to go in many of the areas of our system that overtaxes and overspends. But I have come to the conclusion that this so-called reinstatement is a tax increase. Not only would I not be satisfied with even maintaining a tax, I would like to see taxes go down. The fact that there will be $2.7 billion more extracted from the American taxpayers, I feel compelled to oppose this piece of legislation. But at the same time, I would like to put in a good word for the trust funds. Truly, if we would follow our commitment to the trust funds and not use these trust funds for spending in the general revenues, I think we would all be better off. Whether it is the Social Security trust fund or whether it is the highway trust fund or the airport trust fund or the port trust fund, I think it would be much better if they were true user fees, and since I conclude that this is not a true user fee and it is an actual increase of taxes going into the general revenues, I feel compelled to oppose this piece of legislation. I urge my colleagues to vote no on H.R. 668.”