Rod Grams: “Mr. President, I am usually not one to quote poetry here on the Senate floor, but I rise today and ask my colleagues'…”

“Mr. President, I am usually not one to quote poetry here on the Senate floor, but I rise today and ask my colleagues' indulgence as I broach a serious subject with a not-so-serious bit of rhyme. Abracadabra, thus we learn The more you create, the less you earn. The less you earn, the more you're given, The less you lead, the more you're driven, The more destroyed, the more they feed, The more you pay, the more they need, The more you earn, the less you keep, And now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to take If the tax-collector hasn't got it before I wake. Mr. President, it was 1935 when poet Ogden Nash took up his pen to warn of the dangers of a tax system run amuck. Then, the federal tax rate topped out at less than 4 percent. Sixty-three years later, Washington now demands 28 percent of every paycheck; the additional burden of state and local taxes boosts the total tax load to nearly 40 percent of every worker's paycheck. There exists no other date the American people await with such dread as April 15, tax filing day.”