Political Quotes

“Let me say, taxes are pretty straight forward, put a tax on business or people, and unfunded mandates are hidden taxes. The purpose of this is to let the public know and Members recognize when they are putting these mandates, unfunded mandates, that have the effect of being hidden taxes on companies just as we have done on local governments. Unfunded mandates over the last decade drove up the cost of local governments by the tens of billions of dollars. Congress passed the Unfunded Mandate Reform Act in 1995, because Congress for too long prior to that had been passing the bills and then passing the buck on to the localities who would then have to either raise local taxes. And generally these were property taxes, sales taxes, much more regressive taxes than the Federal income tax, or, in some cases, if they were financially strapped, these unfunded mandates, in driving up the cost of local government, they would have to substitute Washington's priorities for their own priorities. We felt that was wrong and, as a Congress, by overwhelming majorities 2 years ago, 3 years ago were able to pass unfunded mandates reform.”