Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the Senator from Oklahoma has a strongly held view about ethanol, particularly on this issue, on the VEETC, and I understand that. I understand there are Members who would like to see that particular tax credit go away. I understand that. What the Senator from Minnesota and I have come up with is a way for them to achieve that objective, but it does it in a way that is reasonable, measured, and which doesn't totally, in the middle of the year, abruptly disrupt an industry and all of the investment that has been made. The question I ask my colleague is, does our word mean anything around here? We passed this in December. There were 81 Senators who voted for a package of tax extenders, one of which was the volumetric ethanol excise tax credit. Eighty-one Senators are on record. If you want to do away with it, there are lots of ways you can do that. But the way the Senator from Oklahoma is proposing to do that is to say, tomorrow let's pass this and end it. It is $2.5 billion we can save the taxpayers. Well, about $500 million a month is about what this is going to cost. With every month that goes by, there is a little less available to the taxpayer.…”