On the recordAugust 2, 2012
First, let me thank Ranking Member Levin for giving me this opportunity, and let me thank the chairman for bringing up the idea that this Congress is concerned about taxes. I say that because some of us will go home, and our friends and constituents will say, Well, how long are you going to be home? I guess we have to say for close to a month. They say, Do you mean that Thursday, today, was the last day for over a month? Yes. So what were you doing? I'll say, We were doing taxes. Oh. What were you doing about taxes? Were you talking about reforming it? I would say, I heard the word ``reform'' being used, but no. We are being asked by the Republican majority to vote for a pathway to reform. I wish I had some of the Republican statements on this floor stapled to my press release so that I could explain what the heck is a ``pathway to reform.'' Since 1986, what we had thought ``reform'' was was to cut out from that Tax Code obscene provisions--some shouldn't have been in there, and certainly there is no reason for them to be in there now--to save trillions of dollars and to take that savings by reducing the high rate that we pay corporations and so that we can be competitive in the international market; but someone outside of the Congress said that to close these loopholes and to raise revenue are the wrong things to do. I don't know where this wiggly path is to reform, but I know one thing--we're not going to be dealing with this path in August or in September.…
