We have programs that are designed to help people recover from their disaster losses. The tax system is not an efficient means of handing out that money, nor is it a way to ensure that...

The whole argument was (ethanol) production locally would prop up the sugar industry and keep money in the state. None of that is happening. We’re going to send our money out to buy this fuel.

Certainly one has to question what the side benefits would be from being a major sponsor of the trip. Do these sponsors earn brownie points?

Lower the rate and that’s the direct way of providing tax relief.

It’s a step in the right direction, but it’s a cautious step.

This way, the relief really goes to those people who may have been taxed out of their homes as a result.

This is one of those situations where politicians were out to get those tax evaders but it became one of those monsters that’s come back to bite them.

There will be enough political pressure to make Congress consider doing something.

Many of them are gimmicks.

Well, as I characterize most of them, they’re all gimmicks, gimmicks to fool the taxpaying public that they’re going to get some kind of tax relief.

They haven’t found common ground. That’s why I think we shouldn’t spend our resources when the advocates can’t even come to an agreement.

The real way to address the issue has always been there and that is the rate.

One has to question whether or not governments here or on the Mainland should be funding these types of plans when the trend in the private sector is in the other direction.

You’re never going to have permanent jobs if you’re depending on the whim of viewers for the success or failure of a TV show.