Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise to speak about the payroll tax cut we have been debating and considering these many weeks and which we seem to be making some progress on today. I know we will hear more about that later today. I wish to make a couple points--first about the issue itself and then a few points about what is happening in Pennsylvania. I wish to highlight some of the constituent mail we have received about this issue and about the state of the economy and people's lives. But first and foremost, by way of review, we have had a number of weeks now of debate about the payroll tax and putting in place an agreement where both parties can come together to make sure we put in place the payroll tax cut we agreed to last year. Many who have been watching this debate know what that means. Instead of having an individual worker or employee pay 6.2 percent as a payroll tax, we reduced that last year to 4.2 percent. I think it is vital, at a minimum, we do that, we extend it. I had two pieces of legislation--two different versions--to reduce that even more, to cut it in half and also to do the same for businesses. I think that is a good idea, but for whatever reason we have not reached agreement on that. But we seem to have made progress in the last couple days--even in the last couple hours--coming together on an agreement on the payroll tax. We do not have an agreement yet.…”