Political Quotes

“Mr. President, this week Senator Durbin and I are introducing the Working Families Tax Relief Act with a majority of my Democratic colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee. For a number of years, one area of bipartisan agreement in Washington has been on the need for comprehensive tax reform. Tax reform can clear the Code of wasteful carve-outs and special interest loopholes. Senator Enzi was part of a bipartisan meeting that the Finance Committee is wont to do, sitting around a table talking about these issues, just last week. We understand that comprehensive tax reform can place American companies on an even footing with foreign competitors. It can reduce the deficit. It can provide a shot in the arm to economic competitiveness and growth. On that there is agreement. What comprehensive reform should not do--and there is general agreement on this also--is undermine the earned-income tax credit and the child tax credit. These credits are the single most effective incentive to increase low-income parents participating in the workforce and reward work and promote family formation--all goals which we, I believe, all seek. That is why support for these programs in the past has been broad-based and bipartisan. President Reagan and former Representative Jack Kemp--the former running mate of Senator Dole in a Presidential election--were champions of the modern earned-income tax credit.…”