BURNS: His record is very clear on that, and my record is very clear also. I don't vote for tax increases.
TESTER: Sen. Burns talks about how he doesn't raise taxes. He's spending more money than the economy is growing--that's putting a tax burden on our children. If you think that's a way to do business, it certainly wouldn't have worked on our farm. You are a borrow-and-spender, that's unequivocal.
BURNS: You said to some students, "I want to lower your tuition." Since you've been in the senate, tuition has gone of 48%. I have no control over that--you do, with the board of regents. You've got your hand on the throttle.
TESTER: You want to talk about a throttle--your hand on the throttle has doubled the national debt in 5 years. On our kids! If my folks had done that on our farm, they'd have lost the farm. You're running this country into bankruptcy. China's buying our debt, because he can't balance our checkbook.
TESTER: The Patriot Act has very little to do with the War on Terrorism and a lot to do with why the terrorists attacked this country, which is to take away our freedoms.
BURNS: The Patriot Act gave our law enforcement people the same tools that they had to go after organized crime and drug kingpins. That's all it is. Mr. Tester doesn't understand this enemy. It is global. He wants to weaken the Patriot Act, and take away the tools from the people who work for our protection.
TESTER: Let me be clear--I don't want to weaken the Patriot Act, I want to repeal it. It's two inches think, and it does far more than what Burns said--it takes away your freedoms. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have fought and died for our freedoms. If we lose our freedoms, the terrorists will have won. We need to be very forceful against the terrorists, and get ‘em. We're taking away freedoms--first!--and that's ridiculous.
BURNS: I will probably vote for it, if there's things in the bill for small business. It all has to be packaged together. We've got to make the tax cuts from 2001 and 2003 permanent. If we don't, a young person's tax bill will go up by 48% in 2011. A family of four, their tax obligation will go up 58%. So I voted for that package, to make it permanent so we won't face that higher federal obligation, and in that was an increase in minimum wage.
TESTER: One of the good things about the Montana legislature is that we get bills on one topic. If a person votes for it, they vote for it, and we can't skate under part of a bill. I would support the minimum wage increase. I think it's long overdue. If we're going to talk about tax cuts, let's focus them on the middle class, when the bulk of that tax cut he talks about is focused on the very richest rich.
BURNS: Baseless allegations, drummed up in a negative campaign. We've answered those questions. Montanans have always been first in my office. These untruths are the only way to challenge your integrity.
TESTER: Several members of Congress have gone to jail because of their connections to Abramoff. Sen. Burns collected more money from Abramoff than anyone else in Congress. What Sen. Burns didn't tell you is that he DID change his vote on the Marianas Island, on slave labor. And he did give a school to the richest tribe in the US. And he did give Abramoff everything he wanted. People in MT expect integrity and honesty. A handshake in this state means something. Your word is your bond. And Sen. Burns has had staff member after staff member go out of your office and become lobbyists, and vice versa. That's not representing MT and that's not right, and we need a change.
BURNS: All baseless allegations and untruths.
TESTER: If we're going to talk about tax cuts, let's focus them on the middle class, when the bulk of that tax cut he talks about is focused on the very richest rich. The middle class needs to have some support in the tax code, so we best not be messing around and let's do it. Instead of taking away things like the college tax credit, for working families trying to send their kids to college, which Burns did, and increase the taxes on them. Instead of talking about the marriage penalty, let's make it so it isn't a penalty. But why do we have to give tax breaks to Paris Hilton in the process? That tax program that he talks about is dependent on deficit spending to make it work. Deficit spending is putting a tax on our children of $28,000 -- every child is born with a $28,000 tax, in the form a national debt. It's time we had some common sense.
TESTER: Every tax cut measure had the unforeseen consequence of raising the property tax. We can be the good guys at the state level, but that'd just make the school boards and county governments increase the mill levies [of the local property tax], and that's not the way I do business. I'm accountable for what I do and I wasn't going to support that tax pullback. Some of that money went to increasing teacher's salaries, without forcing school boards to increase their mill levies, and in some cases could actually have them reduce their local property taxes. Last session, we eliminated taxes on 13,000 small businesses and we didn't increase taxes. That's the record with the Democratic governor and Democratic senate. We did it within a balanced budget, and we did it on time.
BURNS: He eliminated the business taxes on 13,000 businesses--but raised them on 16,000 businesses.
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The above quotations are from State of Montana Politicians: secondary Archives.
Click here for other excerpts from State of Montana Politicians: secondary Archives. Click here for other excerpts by Jon Tester. Click here for a profile of Jon Tester.
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