Bob Kerrey: “Absolutely. It would be fairer to provide full deductibility for the self-employed. The Senator from Iowa and I both…”

“Absolutely. It would be fairer to provide full deductibility for the self-employed. The Senator from Iowa and I both represent a lot of self-employed families, many of whom are farmers, and they are increasingly going into town to get the jobs just to get health insurance. Absolutely, it would be more fair. I find most Americans want to do things in a fair way. They want us to tell them the truth about the facts. If they see the facts, they see the struggle that is going on. Again, I wonder if anybody who was sitting in this room putting this tax bill together said, hey, did you see the story that says that now a majority of households in America have both mom and dad working? Did you see the story in the newspaper that said of the 270 American corporations surveyed, 70 percent paid less than the 35 percent effective tax rate, and a large number of them didn't pay any taxes at all because they are using stock options to reduce the cost of their taxes? Did you read the story about Americans with higher incomes saying they don't want to pay any taxes so they will park their accounts down in the Bahamas and get a credit card or a debit card? Did anybody in this room say that is not fair? Maybe we should say to these folks who are down there running their accounts in the Bahamas: The next time you have a fire in your house or need the police force, or need the Navy, why don't you get the Bahamian Navy or the Bahamian police force or the Bahamian firefighters to help you out?”