Political Quotes

“Mr. President, yesterday I was at a meeting with the President at the White House, along with several members from both sides of the Senate Finance Committee. I said to the President flatout that Democrats agree that the Tax Code is a broken, dysfunctional mess. Finance Democrats yesterday laid out to the President our principles for reform, focusing on the middle class--not 1 percent--and being fiscally responsible so that Congress doesn't turn around and look at gutting safety-net programs such as Medicare and Medicaid or Social Security. I think it would be fair to say that a whole lot of ears in that room perked up when the President said: Hey, I am for those kinds of things. The President talked to us about wanting help for the middle class. He said that this is not supposed to be about people like him, and he said that he doesn't want to shred the safety net. Unfortunately, as I have indicated, there are gaps as wide as Crater Lake among all of the administration's statements, the rhetoric about taxes, and the reality of what is actually written down on paper about its tax cut plan. The Republican plan--this administration's plan, which actually is written down on paper, doesn't resemble what the late President Reagan accomplished in partnership with Democrats in 1986. Back then, the two sides brought their best ideas forward and passed major tax reform built around the idea that America is strongest when the middle class is prospering.…”