[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 194 (Friday, December 16, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H9801]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          PAYROLL TAX HOLIDAY

  (Mr. TONKO asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, as we come to the close of yet another 
calendar year, and as we move well into the Federal fiscal year, much 
work remains to be done for America's hardworking middle class 
families, the working families of this country that make our economy 
work. We need to make certain that we respond with the extension of a 
payroll tax holiday. This House knows that that is important business.
  We know that the President presented a plan before Congress that 
would ask for a surcharge on the most upper income strata in our 
country to bring about fundamental fairness and to address social and 
economic justice. We know that the hardworking middle class has taken 
it on the chin with tax cuts of a decade and a half ago that have 
really caused hardship with the recession in this country where we lost 
8.2 million jobs.
  We could go forward and do the right thing. We can extend that 
payroll tax holiday and pay for it in a meaningful way, in a balanced 
way. We can then go forward with investments that middle class America 
truly deserves and requires.

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