Jim Sensenbrenner: “It proposes to amend the United States Constitution to require a two-thirds vote for tax increases, and by requiring a…”

“It proposes to amend the United States Constitution to require a two-thirds vote for tax increases, and by requiring a two-thirds vote on tax increases, there would be a requirement that there be a consensus within the Congress, and hopefully within the American public, that taxes should go up. I think that given the history of some of the tax debates that have occurred since I have been in Congress, that type of consensus is sadly needed. The American public has been asking Senators and Representatives, Republicans and Democrats, to be Americans first and partisans second, and to be both bipartisan and nonpartisan when approaching the problems facing the country. All too often, we have very hot debates and very split votes with very narrow majorities, and the American public, I think, is probably as evenly politically divided today as at any time in the history of the country.”