James M. Talent: “I thought if it would facilitate the passage of legislation that meant really good things for a whole lot of American…”

“I thought if it would facilitate the passage of legislation that meant really good things for a whole lot of American people that we ought to try to do it. And we have a conference report and on the surface of it it has a lot of things that I think a lot of people in this House like. It has a minimum wage increase. It has small business tax relief, which I can testify has very strong support in the House and is very necessary in the small business community. It has the repeal of provisions which have prevented installment sales of businesses. It has an increase in the meals deduction, an increase in the deductibility of health insurance premiums for the self-employed. It has the Portman-Cardin pension reforms. It has Medicare give-backs. And most important for my perspective, Mr. Speaker, it has the community renewal new markets bill, which we had a press conference with the White House several months ago and all of us agreed, Republicans, Democrats, the President, the leadership of the House said it was the most significant anti-poverty legislation to pass this body in a generation.”