Political Quotes

“this tax bill is a true Halloween witch's brew; a heavy dose of money for big, unaccountable HMOs that rely on the bean counters to interfere in the doctor-patient relationship, a tiny little pinch of relief for taxpayers, together with the flavoring of a little eye of old Newt's threatening government shutdown for good measure. You can comb through all the pages of this bill, and one thing you will not find is one cent of marriage penalty tax relief. You can comb through these pages and you will not find one cent of estate tax relief for small family businesses and farms. This last minute conglomeration is devoid of meaningful relief for ordinary American families. But this partisan measure showers benefits on the healthy and the wealthy. It gives billions to the same HMOs that have a stranglehold on this Congress and are blocking a patients' bill of rights. They throw in $100 million every year to benefit the tobacco industry in its export of death and disease. Mr. Speaker, no marriage penalty relief; not a cent for marriage penalty, but $24 billion in tax benefits are included to fund the two-martini lunch. Mr. Speaker, here is a bill that even the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, the Republican chair, is going to vote against. What better symbol of a Republican Congress that can best be called failure, flop, and fiasco.”