Political Quotes

“Mr. President, yesterday I mentioned how our colleagues across the aisle and, of course, some groups outside of Capitol Hill have predictably started attacking tax reform, actually a plan that doesn't even yet exist in legislative language. With the fall season now upon us, they have decided to shoot arrows at a straw man. One would think, given their effusive support for tax reform in the past, our Democratic friends would at least wait to review the legislation before they pounce on it. I had hoped that they would work with us to come up with a bipartisan plan, but I guess I am not entirely surprised. That has never stopped them before from pillorying smart policy when it served a political end. Yes, they are already piling on, spreading misinformation, and assuming the worst because that is the easy and politically expedient thing to do. The problem is that many of the criticisms of our framework have been misleading and counterproductive. Worse, some Members seem more content to misconstrue a plan than to understand it and give it a fair hearing. Allow me to clarify the record for just a moment. What is most striking is that the new framework unveiled by the so-called Big 6 shares many of the core features of previous plans that were widely embraced by Democrats--not only that, but many of the folks who are now critical of the new plan came out in support of these provisions as recently as this year. The senior Senator from Oregon is typical in this regard.…”