Political Quotes

“it is correct that this particular provision was tucked in under a title of the balanced budget amendment, the balanced budget agreement, somewhere around page 300 or 400, under the misleading title of Technical Amendments to Assist the Small Business Protection Act. And the small business that was protected here was the tobacco industry. I have been on this floor on a number of occasions prior to this morning asking that the removal of this $50 billion tax giveaway be scheduled on the same day that we have reform of the soft money provisions in campaign finance, because I do not think it is a coincidence that the No. 1 soft money contributor to the Republican Party is Philip Morris, the No. 2 contributor is R.J. Reynolds. And I do not think it is a coincidence that this morning if we conducted a political paternity test, we could not find anyone willing to take the test. This provision did not appear in this bill through divine intervention. It occurred because of the involvement and the corruption of our political system. Not one minute, not one second was devoted on the floor of this House or the U.S. Senate to debate this provision. It was wrong. It is the very kind of thing that the people of America are caused to be most cynical about this institution. So I am pleased that we are taking the leadership to remove it, but we ought to get at not only the symptom, the $50 billion tax break. It is a symptom of the corruption of this system.”