Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I wish to say a few words about some of the amendments we will be voting on later this afternoon--three of them in particular. The amendments I am referring to are the Merkley amendment No. 125, the Carper amendment No. 120, and the Heitkamp amendment No. 133. All three of these amendments address sensitive tax issues that fall squarely into the jurisdiction of the Senate Finance Committee, and all of them address issues that are likely to be litigated as the Finance Committee continues its efforts toward comprehensive tax reform. The Finance Committee is going to be very active in this Congress. We had our first bipartisan markup this morning. We already had two hearings, with more scheduled for next week, and perhaps more importantly--at least in the context of these three votes we will be having today--we have taken concrete steps in a process we believe will end in the introduction of bipartisan tax reform legislation. We have appointed five tax reform working groups to address the various areas of reform. Our hope is that over the next few months these working groups will study the issues and provide ideas we can use as we develop a comprehensive tax reform proposal. Ranking Member Wyden is on board with this effort. We are working together every step of the way. If we start singling out individual tax issues here on the floor--even issues Members may feel passionately about--we are going to undermine this bipartisan process.…”