Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. So, in 1 month, we have taken the entire revenue system of the country without one public hearing, without any witness testimony, without the solicitation of one expert. ``We,'' meaning the Republican majority. They have decided to go forward with this reckless plan. Contrast this with Reagan and O'Neill and Rostenkowski and Packwood in 1986. When Gephardt and Bradley first offered their bill in 1982 on tax reform, 4 years ensued before the measure came to the floor for passage, and, in that time, 450 witnesses offered testimony. Every expert from every nook and cranny in America was invited to offer their vision of what a better tax system might look like. And those individuals--and I knew them all because I went to the committee when Mr. Rostenkowski was the chairman--saw that as the fabled achievement of their time in a bipartisan manner. Do you know what else? Secretary Reagan and Chief of Staff Jim Baker sat through the markups on that tax reform measure. Now, Secretary Mnuchin, instead, has said, nobody at the top will get a tax cut. And then they cut the rate from 39.6 at the top to 37. Well, nobody at the top will get a tax cut. We are going to double the exemption on this estate tax so that you might now keep $22 million rather than $11 million, without any formalization of taxation. My friend, Mr. Brady--and he is my friend--he spoke before about the people's money.…”