Bob Menendez: “No one likes taxes, but taxes are how we fund our schools, our national defense, our police, our parks, environmental…”

“No one likes taxes, but taxes are how we fund our schools, our national defense, our police, our parks, environmental protections, highways, and roads. Unless we are going to do away with all those things, do not let anyone fool you into believing they are going to do away totally with your taxes. They are not. If we do away with this Tax Code, we have got to have another. The first problem with this bill is, they do not have another. This bill eliminates one Tax Code without proposing a new one. In other words, Republicans want to do the easy thing now before the election and save the hard part for later. Republicans say let us eliminate the home mortgage interest deduction now and, trust us, we will make it up to you later. Let us eliminate incentives for employers to provide health care and pension plans and, trust us, we will make it up to you later. Trust us, they say. But do you know who does not trust them? The National Association of Manufacturers does not trust them. The AFL-CIO does not trust them. How many times do we get the unions and the manufacturers opposed to the same bill? That tells us something. Both groups want to keep the economy strong and save American jobs, and they know if business cannot count on the reliability of the Tax Code to plan ahead, to calculate the after-tax costs of investments in plants and equipment and people, then jobs will be lost, the economy will suffer.”