Political Quotes

“I would like to remind the previous speaker that the AFL-CIO has urged a vote against the proposed constitutional amendment that would require a two-thirds majority in the United States House and Senate to increase Federal revenues. Why? Because this amendment would undermine the principle of majority rule in our Federal Government by allowing one-third of either the U.S. House or Senate to hold tax bills hostage. Since many of the terms in this resolution, as previously pointed out, are extremely vague, this proposed constitutional amendment would undoubtedly lead to endless litigation in our courts. It would also hurt our Nation's working families by making it more difficult to extend the lives of the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds. In fact, this proposed constitutional amendment would also make it more difficult to close tax loopholes, including the foreign tax credit and the deferral of the United States taxes on foreign income which encourage U.S. companies to move American jobs overseas. Why, since last April 15, 1998, have not the majority brought forward any of these bills that would close tax loopholes? It seems to me that the income tax was approved by the 16th Amendment to the Constitution in the year 1913. It was passed because huge tycoons were earning hundreds of millions of dollars without paying taxes: the Rockefellers, the Morgans, the Vanderbilts.…”