[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 192 (Wednesday, December 14, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2259-E2260]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          MIDDLE CLASS TAX RELIEF AND JOB CREATION ACT OF 2011

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                               speech of

                         HON. DAVID B. McKINLEY

                            of west virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 13, 2011

  Mr. McKINLEY. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I voted to protect the Social 
Security Trust Fund by opposing H.R. 3630 and would like to take this 
opportunity to discuss my decision. This bill was a patchwork of many 
policies that were thrown together at the last hour and created a 
flawed piece of legislation that I could not support.
  Primarily, the corner stone of this legislation--the extension of the 
payroll tax reduction--did not create jobs for the last year it has 
been in effect. Over the past five months, I have been vocal in my 
opposition to the President's unproductive plan. Since, I do support a 
long-term ``doc fix'' to ensure that doctors continue to accept 
Medicare patients, I do not support the $17 billion cut from hospital 
payments, including those that are essential to help hospitals care for 
low-income Medicare patients. I do support the Keystone XL pipeline and 
efforts to reform unemployment insurance; however, these were not the 
central issues of the legislation we considered yesterday.
  Over the last several days, I have conducted numerous town hall-like 
meetings to discuss this legislation with constituents. As a result of 
these conversations with everyday West Virginians, it was apparent to 
me that breaking from both President Obama and even my own party on 
this bill was the right thing to do.
  Washington just doesn't get it. This tax cut has been in effect for 
the last year and it clearly did not improve the economy. And at what 
cost? For the second year in a row, this bill would take another $180 
billion from Social Security with a promise to be paid back over the 
years, all to give the average West Virginia worker an extra $30 in his 
or her paycheck every two weeks. That's not a jobs plan--it's a re-
election plan. We have seen these same unsuccessful economic plans for 
the past three years, and for those three years they have failed 
miserably. Does it make sense to continue to make choices that we know 
from experience do not work?
  I will concede that after spending most of this past year above 9 
percent, unemployment has dropped to 8.6 percent. But the primary 
driver of this change is simply that 315,000 Americans simply stopped 
looking for work. Also, at this time of year, the retail industry 
increases their staff by almost 50 percent; those people will be back 
on unemployment benefits in February. Nobody can say that the payroll 
tax ``holiday'' has had a meaningful impact on the unemployment rate 
thus far, nor will it likely prove beneficial if extended for another 
year.
  We've all been told that Social Security's finances are in trouble, 
yet President Obama's plan makes the situation worse. We cannot 
continue to send mixed messages to senior citizens and current workers. 
They need to be able to trust that Social Security will be there for 
them. If we do not stop extending this payroll tax cut, then Social 
Security will cease to be a guarantee and instead become another 
typical government program reliant entirely on politicians' whims.
  That's not fair for our seniors or current workers who are currently 
paying into Social Security. So the question becomes, if not now, when 
we will stop raiding Social Security?
  H.R. 3630 is just another temporary tax reduction that only produces 
more uncertainty for employers and fails to protect our seniors. Real 
structural reforms are needed to stabilize Social Security. Past 
experience shows that Congress will spend the next 10 years figuring 
out how to spend the money designated as offsets for today's bill on 
other projects. It won't be used to pay for the bill; I could not in 
good faith support a measure that will raid the trust fund without 
comprehensive reform to the system.
  As Andrew Biggs, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise 
Institute, said, ``People don't generally respond well to temporary tax 
cuts so it's unlikely you're going to see a strong economic response.'' 
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan has likened the payroll tax 
cut to ``sugar-high economics.'' And Chris Edwards, a tax scholar at 
the Cato Institute, said that the president's plan ``is based on faulty 
Keynesian theories and misplaced confidence in the government's ability 
to micromanage short-run growth.'' Perpetuating the president's failed 
economic policies,

[[Page E2260]]

especially if we have to rob Social Security to do it, has to stop.
  Additionally, the reductions in federal reimbursements to hospitals 
that are contained in this legislation are not acceptable. Hospitals in 
northern West Virginia are already being paid at some of the lowest 
Medicare rates in the country; we should not be making it even harder 
for the hospitals to provide quality healthcare to our seniors.
  Again, since this bill was loaded up at the last minute with several 
items which I have already strongly supported throughout this 
Congress--including jumpstarting the Keystone Pipeline, relaxing EPA 
regulations on boilers, extending and reforming unemployment benefits 
and other government programs, and preventing a scheduled 27% cut to 
doctors' Medicare reimbursement rates--it is simply unacceptable to 
continue the president's misguided economic theories at seniors' 
expense.
  This bill has a long way to go despite the short timeframe in which 
Congress is operating, and if significant changes are made, it may be 
worth another look. But I came to Washington to get something done, 
create jobs, and restore common sense to the process. Unfortunately 
this particular bill fails that test.

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