Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today I will vote in favor of proceeding to the President's latest tax plan because it is essential we begin the debate on comprehensive tax reform. I do this despite my disappointment that the President has not proposed a serious starting point. Our Nation's tax code needs to be overhauled, from top to bottom. The tax plan offered by the bipartisan Bowles-Simpson Commission--a commission the President himself created--offered a proposal a year and a half ago that should have been the foundation for a serious debate for such an overhaul. But the President failed to show leadership, and allowed that proposal to wallow. Instead, he has asked us to consider a bill today that he himself has called ``a gimmick.'' I believe we should be debating comprehensive tax reform aimed at creating a simpler, fairer, pro-growth tax code. Such reform should lower rates for job creators and middle-income Americans, while increasing the share of taxes paid by the wealthy. A key to reform is simplification: just last year, according to the IRS, there were 579 changes to a tax code that is already more than 65,000 pages long. No one can keep up such complexity--it hobbles our economy, and exasperates the American taxpayer. I have said that multimillionaires and billionaires can pay more to help us deal with our deficit, and I have voted for surtaxes on the very wealthy in the past. In fact, I have even introduced legislation calling for such surtaxes.…”