Political Quotes

“let me first thank Senator Enzi and Senator Durbin for bringing forward this amendment. I agree with Senator Alexander for his comment as it relates to this bill. Let me talk about one of the objectives we want to see in taxes. We talk about simplifying, we talk about fairness. We also talk about what is known as the tax gap. That is the gap between the taxes that we have imposed that we should collect and what we really collect. When it comes to sales and use tax, it has been estimated that because of the place in which an individual buys the product there is a $23 billion gap. That is $23 billion of taxes that are owed are not collected. This is an urgent problem. In my own State of Maryland it is $300 million a year. There are people who are paying higher taxes than they should because Maryland has to impose higher rates to make up for that $300 million. We all talk about a system where we can spread the base and lower the rates. The first way you do it is by collecting the taxes that everyone should pay. This is a good-governance issue, this is a fairness issue, this is an issue that is not that terribly complicated. We are not talking about any new tax responsibilities. We are not talking about any new taxes. We are talking about getting our local governments, as Senator Alexander has said, the ability to collect the taxes that they impose in a fair manner. This is a matter of fairness. This is a matter of doing what is right.…”