[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 183 (Thursday, December 1, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8079-S8080]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            PAYROLL TAX CUTS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, yesterday on the Senate floor my friend the 
Republican leader said he supports an extension of the payroll tax cut 
that had been enacted last year. There has been an extreme change of 
heart here. On the Sunday shows the assistant leader, my friend, the 
junior Senator from Arizona, said Sunday: Not a chance they would work 
to extend this payroll tax cut. Then, as late as Tuesday, my friend the 
Republican leader said it would not ``do a thing to help the economy.'' 
Obviously there has been a change of heart since then by the leaders of 
the Senate Republicans.
  But I noted yesterday that my friend was very careful to say only 
that he supports existing cuts, not that he supports our plan to cut 
taxes for 160 million workers in every business in the country.
  Last night I found out why. I was disappointed to see the 
Republicans' alternate proposal was actually a backdoor route to 
protect the very rich while shortchanging the middle class and small 
businesses. Should we be surprised at this? That is what has been going 
on this past year. Our proposal would provide relief for American 
families and extend existing tax cuts to benefit businesses. The 
Republican proposal rejects this new tax relief and

[[Page S8080]]

doesn't provide a penny of additional tax cuts for working families and 
it does nothing for small businesses--the job creators the Republicans 
claim to care so much about.
  They seem to think our plan to put $1,500 back into the pocket of 
every American, with rare exception, and give small businesses the 
boost they need to hire new employees goes too far. They are willing to 
fight for ever deeper tax cuts for the wealthy, but when it comes to 
the middle class, Republicans here in the Senate--not Republicans 
generally, but Republicans here in the Senate--believe the status quo 
is good enough for struggling families. The Republican plan goes 
directly against the budget agreement we reached in the summer, the so-
called Budget Deficit Reduction Act, where we raised the debt ceiling 
and those things we worked on. It took 3 months. Their plan goes 
directly against that plan that we made, which is now the law of this 
country. While Democrats have been working tirelessly to create new 
jobs, the Republican plan goes in precisely the opposite direction. 
Instead of creating jobs, it would cost jobs. The report is out today 
that during the month of October there were 206,000 private sector jobs 
created. Under their plan, the Republicans' plan, many more middle-
class families around the country would lose their jobs. That includes 
Americans dedicated to public service, hard-working people committed to 
keeping our streets safe--for example, an FBI agent, Drug Enforcement 
officer, food safety workers, highway construction workers. They want 
to devastate those folks. That is how they want to pay for this tax 
cut. It is not anything that is going to help the economy. It hurts the 
economy.

  They are going after jobs that we need so desperately. Do the 
Republicans believe--I guess so, because that is what their legislation 
is all about--that the way to revive the economy is to lay off more FBI 
agents or fire more Border Patrol officers? These cuts will not revive 
the economy, they will only slow it down and cost more jobs. But, 
remember, the role of the Republicans here in the Senate is to defeat 
Barack Obama. It doesn't matter what it does to middle-class families, 
obviously.
  While targeting the middle class, Republicans propose to do nothing 
to cut back on excessive subsidies for many large corporations that 
benefit from government contracts. This is almost hard to comprehend. 
The Republicans started it, and it caught fire during the Republican 
control of the Presidency. There are more than 5 million government 
contractors. The Republicans propose to do nothing to cut back on 
excessive subsidies for many of these large corporations that benefit 
from government contracts. Employees at some of these taxpayer-
supported corporations are being paid more than $700,000 a year while 
many public servants struggle to make ends meet. The Republicans want 
to whack these people who work to keep us safe in many different ways 
while they let these people go untouched.
  The Republicans are uninterested in going after these high-income 
earners. As usual, the only real target of this Republican meat axe is 
the middle class. It is wrong. Americans believe, across the country, 
that the middle class is hurting. I have said--I will say it again--the 
only people in America who believe that the richest of the rich should 
not contribute a little bit to help our economy are the Senate 
Republicans. The Republicans outside this body do not feel that way. 
America's middle class has been hurting for a long time. They are the 
people who are struggling. They are the ones who need help, not these 
multimillionaires, and not large, profitable government contractors.
  The Republican proposal is unacceptable. It will not pass the Senate. 
We can do better and we must do better.
  Would the Chair announce the business of the day?

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