Political Quotes

“I come to the floor today to join other colleagues from both sides of the aisle to talk about this tax debate. We don't do tax reform nearly enough here in the United States. It seems we have taken it on about every 35 years whether we need to or not. But if there is one lesson we have learned from previous tax reform efforts, it is that while they can do a lot of good, they can also do a lot of harm. I have to start by expressing my extraordinarily deep frustration with the process we have gone through. Today we are considering a bill that was drafted in secret, designed with more gimmicks and loopholes than I have ever seen, and is being rushed through the process without input from all of us on this side of the aisle and without even appropriate analysis of its true financial impact. In many ways, to quote the President, what got us here is the worst of Washington. If you want to see swamp 101, look at the process of this tax bill. It is a 300-page tax bill that was released on the eve of a holiday weekend, only days before it was marked up in committee. Over a 4-day markup, two significant rewrites of this bill were presented. One consisted of over 100 pages of changes, and a second was released a mere 30 minutes before Members were asked to vote on its myriad of provisions. Now, less than 2 weeks later, we are considering that bill or a variation of it on the Senate floor.…”