Mark Dayton: “this bill should be a billboard for the corruption of the public interest in Washington. It is a disgrace, it is an…”

“this bill should be a billboard for the corruption of the public interest in Washington. It is a disgrace, it is an abomination, and it should be rejected by the Senate. Last year, when this body passed a version of this legislation, I voted for it, principally because it included my amendment requiring corporate executives to pay their fair share of taxes when they use their company planes for their personal use. That is a matter of simple tax fairness. When all other Americans take vacations, they pay for their air travel on commercial airlines with their after-tax income. Yet when some of this country's wealthiest people, corporate executives, take vacations on their company planes, they fly for free and they pay almost no taxes on the actual value of that special employment benefit. My amendment would have raised $44 million in Federal revenues during the next 10 years, all of it coming from some of the very richest Americans, all of it coming from the end of their tax avoidance scheme. What happened to my amendment, which was adopted by the full Senate on a unanimous voice vote? It was stripped from this conference report by the House-Senate conference committee which is controlled by the Republican majority in both bodies. It was done behind closed doors with no explanation and, thus, once again the greedy, a few rich and powerful Americans, have prevailed over the best interests of everyone else.…”