Max Baucus: “I start by expressing my respect for Senators, especially on the Democratic side, who made arguments against the bill…”

“I start by expressing my respect for Senators, especially on the Democratic side, who made arguments against the bill and have proposed amendments to it. As the chairman of the committee and I have both said, this bill is a compromise. It is not perfect. It is not what anybody would want if he or she were writing it, but it is a compromise. There has been a lot of give and take. Nobody got everything he or she wanted because that is what compromises are all about. It is almost inevitable that there will be legitimate, good-faith disagreements about the resulting bill. This is a tax bill. There are lots of points of view. It is very complicated. There are going to be very passionate arguments made about various provisions of this bill on both sides. On top of that, we have been debating under very stringent conditions; that is, constraints of reconciliation. This debate is rushed. It is hard to get revenue estimates. Many Senators have come to me and said it is difficult to get revenue estimates from joint tax. I wish we were not in such a rush mode. I wish this bill could have been debated more thoroughly, but that is not with what we are faced. I understand the frustrations many of my colleagues have. I also say the criticisms of the bill are very well intended.”