Political Quotes

“I come to the floor to talk about something every American wants from their public officials: transparency and accountability. Unfortunately, after repeated attempts, Congress has not received that transparency or accountability from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and it is feeding the perception of corruption. For the past 6 months, the Senate Finance Committee has been trying to get straight answers from the Justice and his wealthy friends about the growing list of handouts they have lavished on the Justice. Most recently, we sought to figure out whether Justice Thomas secretly had over $250,000 in debt written off--simply wiped away--by a wealthy benefactor. If so, as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, I am working to learn whether he paid the taxes he was supposed to-- taxes that any American is legally required to pay. The Justice has refused to respond. Justice Thomas acts as if the freebies and the special favors Americans are reading about--the flights on private jets, comped; trips on luxury yachts; megawealthy individuals paying for school tuitions; quarter-million-dollar debts wiped away--is totally normal stuff. The reality is, it is not. It isn't normal for anyone, and when the person receiving all of these extravagant handouts is one of the nine most powerful jurists in the country, with unchecked power to rewrite laws from the bench, it looks worse. With respect to this disappearing debt, here is what we know.…”