On the recordDecember 16, 2014
I am going to personally thank the distinguished Senators from North Carolina and Pennsylvania for their work on the act. It is a very important bill. I want to give them credit for doing such a good job. The Senate will soon vote on a 1-year tax extenders package that, if enacted, will retroactively extend tax provisions that expire at the end of 2014. It is quite literally the best we can do. At this point it is something we must do. We are actually disappointed that 1-year package that was sent over to the House was basically rejected by the President. We would have preferred to have had that package. On the other hand, this is reckoning time at the end of the year. I might add in his epic speech, Prime Minister Winston Churchill stated, ``Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.'' In the case of the legislation before us, it could be said: Never in the history of tax legislation have so many voted for so little and been so disappointed. In fact, today, for the first time in 20 years, we will ensure that the new Congress will start with all of the regular so-called tax extenders already expired at the end of the first session, as the distinguished Senator from Oregon has explained. That is a dubious distinction that was entirely avoidable in our view.…
