Don Nickles: “I wish that was the case. But I would like to say that there has been a lot of politics. Maybe this is more a political…”

“I wish that was the case. But I would like to say that there has been a lot of politics. Maybe this is more a political year because of the election. We can't even get conferees for the Workforce Reinforcement Act, a bill that passed unanimously in the Senate. Yes, you might say everybody is in favor of it, but people might find a reason not to give consent to pass it or they might say: I will pass it, but I want to offer amendments. And maybe those amendments would continue to be offered, more and more amendments. Tax codes are interesting. The Senator from North Dakota and I both serve on the Finance Committee with Senator Grassley. When you get a tax bill on the floor, you could have an unlimited number of amendments. There are 100 Senators and probably every one of us has different ideas on the Tax Code. We might start debating ethanol subsidies because the Senator from New Hampshire and others believe we have overdone it on ethanol. Before you know it, we might not finish this bill. The chairman said he wants to make sure we can get it finished one way or another, to make assurances to those families who have kids, or those married couples, that they are going to continue to keep the same taxes so they don't have a tax increase. This is not about tax cuts. This is making sure they don't have a tax increase. The only way we can make sure they don't have tax increases is to defeat the Byrd amendment.”