Max Baucus: “this bill that has come over from the House has come over quite quickly and Senators have not had a lot of time to…”

“this bill that has come over from the House has come over quite quickly and Senators have not had a lot of time to examine it and to work through the provisions of the bill. Personally, I think it is a bit rushed. Having said that, I will support it at this point because--the phrase I often find myself using these days--we cannot let perfection be the enemy of good. There are some good provisions in this bill. We did not have the opportunity to amend it. But the fact is, if we do try to amend it, we will probably get wrapped around the axle, and nothing will be passed. And there are several provisions that should definitely pass. One is the extension of unemployment insurance. To my mind, the provisions in the House bill relating to unemployment insurance do not do enough. Given the state of the economy in the last year and the number of people who are out of jobs and need help, it is unfortunate that we cannot do more. But a 13 week extension will help many people and provide an economic stimulus. In addition, the bill includes the extension of several important tax provisions, some of which expired last year. It is an outrage, frankly, that this Senate and the House of Representatives let those provisions lapse and we did not pass them at the end of last year. I tell my colleagues right now that I regret I did not push strongly enough last year when we passed the tax bill to make sure the extenders were included.”