[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 186 (Tuesday, December 6, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8345-S8346]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         PAYROLL TAX EXTENSION

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, yesterday my friend the majority 
leader unveiled what he rather misleadingly referred to as a compromise 
on the payroll tax. I say it was misleading because we had to find out 
about it from reporters.
  This was not a compromise. This was nothing more than another bill 
designed to fail so Democrats can have another week of fun and games on 
the Senate floor while tens of millions of working Americans go another 
week wondering whether they are going to see a smaller paycheck at the 
end of the year.
  I have said I support this extension. I don't think working Americans 
should

[[Page S8346]]

have to suffer any more than they already are for the President's 
failure to turn this jobs crisis around. Unfortunately, the majority 
leader has yet to introduce legislation that can actually pass the 
Senate or the House. One would think if that is one of the President's 
top priorities, then the Democratic leader of the Senate would put 
together a proposal that is designed to actually pass. But we haven't 
seen it yet. We all know what a successful bill would look like. So I 
hope the majority leader comes forward with a real proposal soon 
because time is running out. It makes absolutely no sense at a moment 
when 14 million Americans are looking for jobs to raise taxes on the 
very people we are counting on to create them. That is why the Senate 
rejected the idea last week on a bipartisan basis.
  Look, the Democrats know as well as we do that this is a terrible 
idea. They have seen the same letters I have. The National Association 
of Manufacturers says this tax hike would seriously impair the ability 
of their members to put unemployed Americans back to work. The 
Democrats know as well as I do that four out of five of those who would 
be hit by this are business owners, people who create jobs. The only 
reason--the only reason--we even went through this exercise is because 
it obviously polls well.

  So this is what Washington has been reduced to: a President and a 
Senate who would rather spend their time doing cheap political theater 
than giving people the certainty they want. What we need to do is to 
step back and realize that the only reason we are talking about a one-
shot stimulus measure nearly 3 years into this Presidency is because of 
the President's failure to turn this jobs crisis around. We need to get 
beyond the temporary fixes and start talking about fundamental tax 
reform that puts the American worker in charge of this recovery, not 
Washington.
  But for now, it is perfectly clear that the path to an accomplishment 
on this issue does not run through tax hikes. Yesterday, the President 
warned Congress to keep its word to the American people and ``don't 
raise taxes on them now.'' I wish to remind my colleagues and the 
President that the Republican plan is the only plan that meets the 
President's standard. The President just warned us: Don't raise taxes 
on the American people. The proposal we offer is the only one that 
meets that standard.
  If our friends are serious about passing this extension of the 
payroll tax cut, they have a choice: We can have an accomplishment or 
we can have additional partisan show votes.

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