[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 187 (Wednesday, December 7, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8408-S8409]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        MIDDLE CLASS TAX CUT ACT

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I come to the floor this evening to urge 
my colleagues to support legislation to extend and expand the payroll 
tax cut on which middle-class families across America depend. Last week 
Democrats brought a bill to the floor that would have not only 
accomplished this goal for our workers, it would have also cut the 
payroll tax for half of our Nation's employers and eliminated it 
entirely for businesses who were making new hires.
  To pay for this proposal, Democrats proposed a small surtax on 
millionaires and billionaires; that is, people who are earning more 
than $1 million a year. In order to extend and expand the critical tax 
break for middle-class families and small businesses owners, we thought 
it right to call on the wealthiest among us--those who can afford it--
to pay just a little bit more at a time when a vast majority of 
Americans are struggling.
  Our bill set up a choice, and we thought it was an easy one: Do you 
vote to extend critical tax cuts for middle-class families or do you 
vote to protect the wealthiest Americans from paying one penny more 
toward their fair share?

[[Page S8409]]

  Unfortunately, almost every Senate Republican chose to side with the 
richest Americans and filibuster our middle-class tax cut bill. In a 
surprising development, their leadership's own bill to simply extend 
the middle-class tax cuts while protecting the wealthiest Americans was 
opposed by the majority of Republicans.
  Republicans spent months on the Joint Select Committee on Deficit 
Reduction saying that the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans should 
be made permanent, that the wealthiest Americans and biggest 
corporations should get even deeper tax cuts, the tax cuts for the rich 
should not be paid for and should be simply added to the deficit, and 
that a pledge made to a Republican lobbyist named Grover Norquist gave 
them no choice but to support tax cut extensions.
  So I have to say I am truly disappointed to see, once again, that 
this apparent concern for tax cuts only seems to extend to millionaires 
and billionaires. Now that a break for the middle class is on the verge 
of ending in a few short weeks--potentially causing deep harm to our 
weak economy--those Republicans who fought tooth and nail for tax cuts 
for the rich are nowhere to be found. In fact, many of them are 
actively opposing it.
  Republicans seem to be operating under the backwards economic 
principle that only tax cuts for the richest Americans and biggest 
corporations are worth fighting for. In fact, they have a name for that 
group of people. They call them the job creators. They believe the only 
ones who create jobs in America are the rich, and they claim the tax 
cuts and loopholes they fight for that benefit the wealthy will somehow 
trickle down to the rest of us.
  Well, that is wrong. We know the Republican economic policy has 
failed us. It was this kind of thinking that turned a surplus into a 
deficit, that brought our economy to its knees, that failed our middle 
class and allowed the wealthiest Americans to amass record fortunes, 
paying the lowest tax rates in decades. It is the wrong way to go. 
Americans know it and our country has the scars to prove it.
  A constituent of mine named Nick Hanauer recently published an op-ed 
in Bloomberg Businessweek that speaks to this point exceptionally well. 
Nick is a businessman. He is a venture capitalist in Seattle. He helped 
to launch more than 20 companies, including amazon.com, and he has a 
deep understanding of 21st-century jobs and the innovation economy.
  Nick wrote that it is not tax cuts for the rich that create jobs--and 
I want to quote him. He says:

       Only consumers can set in motion a virtuous cycle that 
     allows companies to survive and thrive and business owners to 
     hire. An ordinary middle-class consumer is far more of a job 
     creator than I ever have been or ever will be.

  He advocates ending the tax breaks for the rich and using some of 
that savings to give average working families a break and put more 
money in their pockets. Nick's logic is clear, and it makes economic 
sense. It is in line with what the American public believes, and it is 
exactly why this middle-class tax cut needs to pass.
  So while I strongly supported our last bill that would have extended 
and expanded this tax cut on both workers and employers, it was clear 
that Republicans were not going to drop their filibuster. So we are 
back now with a compromise.
  Republicans claim to be concerned that our bill was too big, so we 
scaled it back. They didn't like the surcharge on the wealthiest 
Americans, so we cut it down significantly and we made it temporary. To 
make it even more acceptable, we included spending cuts that both sides 
said were acceptable as well as their proposal to make millionaires 
ineligible to receive unemployment insurance and food stamps.
  The compromise that is before us is fully paid for. It extends and 
expands payroll tax relief for millions of middle-class families in our 
country. It will create jobs and provide a critical boost for this 
economy at a time when we desperately need it.
  So I continue hoping that our Republican colleagues will be as 
focused on tax cuts for the middle class as they are for the wealthiest 
Americans and largest corporations. I hope they stand with us to pass 
this critical legislation in time for the holidays because that is what 
American families want.
  I thank the Chair.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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