Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, the ranking member said this was a bill to solve a nonexistent problem. Everybody ought to pay their taxes--everybody. Everybody ought to pay their taxes. Now, if you are really rich, you can find an accountant who can find you about every loophole there is that we have given. You want to have a bill on the floor closing loopholes. {time} 1545 The chairman admits that Federal employees pay their taxes voluntarily and correctly at a higher percentage than the general public. Should every one of them pay? Should it be 100 percent? The chairman is right; it should be 100 percent. The gentleman from North Carolina talks about our Federal employees, and they ought to be treated correctly. We are their board of directors. I will tell you, folks, if any board of directors of any large corporation in America treated its employees the way we treat them, they would all quit, and the company would go bankrupt, because we treat our Federal employees very poorly--very poorly. The general public, of course, thinks they are loafing and they are not working hard and this, that, and the other, and that is wrong. We have the best civil service in the world. This does convey the message that somehow you are not doing what you are supposed to do. I know the gentleman gets up and says this is a very small percentage. When a Member of Congress doesn't pay his taxes and he gets indicted and he has to quit this body, it besmirches all of us.…”