Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I will offer an amendment to the pending legislation, amendment No. 3342. It is my intention to call up that amendment after the votes on the pending amendments this afternoon, but I would like to take a few minutes to explain to my colleagues the nature of this amendment and why I believe it is important. This amendment basically says if you are an executive at one of the companies that received more than $5 billion in the TARP bailout, the financial bailout that occurred when we began our economic crisis, and if you receive in addition to your compensation a bonus in excess of $400,000, then that amount above $400,000--which is the approximate compensation of our President--will be taxed at 50 percent, and the amount it is taxed will be returned to the American taxpayers for deficit reduction. It is a very simple amendment. It is a one-time amendment based on a unique situation in this country when the American taxpayers had to bail out our major companies in order to stabilize our economy. This is not class warfare. It is not a continuing windfall profits tax. But I believe it is very proper for us to institute this on a one- time basis. Estimates we have had, when I offered this amendment as independent legislation a short while ago, along with Senator Boxer, were that you could recoup in the neighborhood of $10 billion back into our economy by this very fair tax assessment.…”