Rich Neal: “I am opposed to this bill in its current form. I would remind my colleagues that this amendment to the bill will not…”

“I am opposed to this bill in its current form. I would remind my colleagues that this amendment to the bill will not kill the bill or send it back to committee. If adopted, the bill will immediately proceed to final passage, as amended. Now, I must tell you that I, having served on the Ways and Means Committee for a long time, think that we should label tax reform as ``Chairman Ryan's tax reform by ambiguity.'' I can't figure this out. We have a set of final decisions that are putting ours in front of the discussion and the debate. Mr. Ryan stands and says: You are supposed to stick to your principles; you are supposed to stick to your beliefs; you don't need bipartisanship. And the majority leader addressed the House 10 minutes before, blaming the President because he sticks to his beliefs and he sticks to his principles and he adheres to some basic policy tenets. Well, this is Friday the 13th. What an appropriate way to discuss tax reform. But I have figured out what the problem is. They, on the Republican side, are now afraid of doing tax reform. They must be afraid of what they see as the luck that might come to the Democratic Party based on tax reform. Let me say this today, right now. Every Democrat in this institution favors 179 and favors expensing for small businesses. If anything, we would extend the principle beyond its current form so that we might include even more individuals.…”