Political Quotes

“the provision my friend talks about is placed in legislation as a result of the study made during the Bush administration--second Bush administration. GAO did a study. They found that 33,000 contractors, in effect, cheated on their taxes, and they owed some $3 billion. This money, they also determined, went mostly to giving the owners more salary and building them second and third homes. There is no question that a lot of people, in addition to the 33,000 who cheated, were found to be burdened by this withholding 3 percent of what they had coming to them. What my friend fails to acknowledge is this bill that was amended that my friend has before the Senate has no chance of accomplishing anything. Constitutionally it will be killed in the House in a matter of a millisecond because constitutionally it will be what we call blue slipped here. It is a revenue measure. It cannot start in the Senate. It costs $11.6 billion to take this money out--I am sorry--take that 3-percent provision out, and we need to do that. It costs $11.6 billion. What my friend fails to alert the Senators to is that since this matter has come up in years past and months past, things have changed. We have burdened the American people--especially the American middle class--with all of these cuts we have made. We did them. It was done by Democrats and Republicans, but they have given enough. My friend's bill is offset by reducing discretionary spending by $30 billion.…”