Don Nickles

Just to repeat, I tried to do that yesterday, and the Senator from Massachusetts objected--or somebody from the other side of the aisle objected. I just want to make that point as well. Some of us tried to pass a clean extension yesterday…

I object. Mr. President, I compliment our colleague from Alaska for trying to pass a clean, simple extension. This is the same language Senator Clinton and I passed last January. It is the same language Senator Fitzgerald passed with us, I…

just for the information of our colleagues, to make sure we make the record straight, my very good friend from the great State of Massachusetts has mentioned: Let people have a vote. Well, we have not had one vote--we have had three votes…

the FY2004 budget resolution adopted last month includes a provision to uncover waste, fraud and abuse in Federal Government spending. Today marks the beginning of a transparent and deliberative process that will be undertaken by…

I stated publicly that I think that leaves a lot to be desired. So the amendment we will be offering tomorrow will enhance that, improve that. It would say for all taxpayers, for dividend exclusion, our effort is to eliminate double…

I will bump that up to a higher level between the majority leader, minority leader, and my friends. It was my understanding it needs to be done this week before we left. I have not consulted with Treasury--the Secretary of the Treasury in…

I take issue with our colleagues. I regret the decision they made. But that is not the way this resolution reads. It may have been the way we were looking at having it a couple days ago, but because of some changes that were made, this…

I want to give a little different vantage point on some of these issues, and then maybe other colleagues will wish to speak. I have heard kind of a continual part of the debate offered by our colleagues in opposition to this resolution…

Western States have a lot of public land and not a lot of private land. This amendment says if you are going to sell land to a charity that deals with conservation, you get a 25 percent lower capital gains tax than if you sell to any other…

I compliment both my colleagues from Iowa and Montana for bringing up this bill. Amendment No. 527 (Purpose: To exclude 25 percent of gain on sales or exchanges of land or water interests to any nonprofit entity for any charitable purpose)…

we are very grateful to the Senator from Massachusetts for bringing this to our attention. We are supportive of the President and his budget. I know it has happened time and time again, and we welcome his support. We have no objection to…

We have to decide, are we going to have individual Senators come here and say we know best, we ought to give the Secretary--this is a new Secretary, a new Department, where the funding for these items has more than doubled in the last 2…

I do know the effect of this amendment would be in the outyears we would be taking a 10-percent rate and making it 15 percent. I do know in the outyears we would eliminate the marriage penalty relief. I do know the effect of it would be…

Most agree we need to do something to grow the economy. There are different ideas, and I compliment my colleagues for some of the ideas. We have some very good ideas on both sides. Maybe we can come up with some of the best. I wish to talk…

That is percentage of GDP. We have a much bigger percent of GDP, but a tax rate is a tax rate. I ran a corporation. When I made profits, I paid that rate. Maybe somebody was able to figure out some Enron-type schemes and things. This…

How much of an increase did you have in 2004? I heard $88 billion over the life of the bill.

I know there are colleagues who want to offer the prescription drug amendment. I will make a few comments on elimination of the death tax. A couple of people said there is no tax on death. I disagree. I can say that from experience. My…

I tell my colleagues, I am disappointed we are going to go out of session shortly. We stated our intention to stay in session, stay in business, to receive amendments late into the night, to work to pass and/or to modify, to accept or to…

Mr. President, when we marked up our budget, we put in a couple of billion dollars actually over the President's request. I mentioned to my colleagues then: No matter what we put in, there are going to be amendments on the floor to…

You also increase taxes, or decrease the tax cut-- whichever language you want to use--by an amount of how much?

For people who live outside the State and have never been in this area to try to dictate that we should never drill there, without living there, and override and superimpose their will over the two home State Senators, I find to be almost…

I am going to speak in opposition to both amendments. To remind our colleagues, we expect a vote on both of the amendments offered by our friend and colleague from North Dakota, Senator Conrad, at 5 o'clock. Both of these amendment also…

I urge my colleagues to seriously consider this resolution. I will readily say it is not perfect. It is a result of a lot of work from individuals on both sides of the aisle who considered and put this resolution together. This resolution…

I have heard many people say the tax cut is really weighted towards the upper income people, and sometimes I do not know if we are talking about the 2001 tax cut or the tax cut that President Bush is now proposing for growth or the…

this bill Senator Miller and I are introducing is the President's economic and growth package. This is a package the President has put together that would help American families. This is a package that is profamilial and progrowth. It is a…