Political Quotes

“Mr. President, when we pursue tax reform, invariably those impacted will voice concerns along the way. I know this from experience, having done tax reform in North Carolina. Everyone was for tax reform until it came to protecting their individualized interests. However, reform was not about protecting tax benefits for the rich or the like, as some of my colleagues have suggested--understandably, for political purposes. Tax reform is what we can do as a Congress to help spur economic growth. Without growth, we cannot solve our Nation's problems. Having an uncompetitive tax code hampers the ability of the middle class to grow and prosper. Through this process, we have fought to ensure that there are appropriate transition rules and protections for various strategic sectors in our economy, and I am proud of the work that both Chambers of Congress have done through the conference process. When we debated the Senate's tax reform package on the floor, some of my colleagues offered amendments on discrete issues, and I believe that, for many of these issues, we attempted to embrace, as a body, a process that defines problems and works to solve them. I also believe that the conference committee did a good job working with JCT and the Finance Committee to address issues, without jeopardizing the underlying tax reform measure. For other issues that were not able to be addressed in theconference report, I believe that legislating is an exercise of continued and systematic work.…”