Political Quotes

“Mr. President, a number of Senators have been inquiring as to what will happen next with respect to the handling of the tax legislation. My sense is that, in a relatively short period of time, the Senate will be voting on the motion to proceed to this legislation. I just want to take a couple of minutes to talk about why I am going to oppose the motion to proceed. The fact is, right now, on a topic that will involve $10 trillion worth of tax policy changes--the biggest change in the Tax Code in 31 years when the U.S. Senate votes on the motion to proceed--we, essentially, will not know yet what the Senate will be debating. There are rumors; there are whispers, but the fact is, as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, which has authority over taxes, I haven't seen the text of the bill that we will actually be debating. The bill seems to have changed practically every half hour. It has certainly been a moveable feast for the super lobbyists, but there are a couple things we already do know. We know, for example, it is not going to give a fair shake to working families. What we have talked about again and again in the Senate is that the Senate leadership is committed to a double standard with respect to the American economy: temporary breaks for the middle class--they vanish in a few years--and permanent breaks for those at the top. We can do better than this. The middle class is responsible for 70 percent of the economic activity in our economy.…”