[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 20 (Tuesday, February 7, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Page S362]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            PAYROLL TAX CUT

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I want to make a couple of observations 
this morning about the bipartisan support that exists for extending a 
payroll tax holiday. I will start with the obvious: Republicans 
strongly support extending this tax cut for the rest of the year. 
Americans have suffered long enough as a result of this President's 
economic policies. They do not need to suffer more because of his 
failure to turn the economy around 3 years into his administration.
  But the fact is any solution requires both sides to engage in good-
faith negotiations. When my friend, the majority leader of the Senate, 
comes to the floor and says that Republicans in Congress are only 
willing to extend this tax cut if they are allowed to poison Americans' 
drinking water, then I think it is pretty safe to say it is time for 
fewer partisan attacks and more efforts to finish the job.
  When a tax hike that has been rejected repeatedly by Members of both 
parties over the past year is the opening bid in a negotiation, I think 
it is safe to say that Democrats are more interested in scoring 
political points than in scoring a tax cut that millions of middle-
class Americans are counting on.
  When the majority leader of the Senate suddenly announces he is 
working on a proposal of his own to extend this tax cut, even as the 
conference committee is in the midst of negotiating a bipartisan 
solution that everybody can support, I think it is pretty obvious where 
the problem lies. It is with the Democratic majority and a President 
who we thought were elected to lead.
  I think most Americans would expect that at a moment such as this, 
when a solution to a pressing problem is sought, the majority party 
bears the responsibility to find it. It is worth noting that in the 
House, the majority party did its work and passed a 1-year extension. 
Yet all we get from the Democratic majority in the Senate are 
exaggerated claims, ad hominem attacks, and false accusations aimed at 
delaying a solution rather than achieving one.
  So I would remind my friend the majority leader that the particular 
piece of legislation he railed against yesterday as an effort to poison 
people has broad bipartisan support, including 12 Democratic cosponsors 
here in the Senate--and rightly so in the midst of a jobs crisis. We 
should seize every opportunity we have to help job creators at a time 
when more than 13 million Americans are looking for work and can't find 
it.
  The only thing controversial about this proposal--the only thing 
controversial about this proposal--is the idea of opposing it.
  I would also remind the majority leader that the Federal pay freeze 
received more than 300 votes in the House, and that he himself already 
agreed to spending cuts during negotiations this past fall that would 
cover the cost of extending this payroll tax cut for the remainder of 
the year.
  So let us allow the conferees to finish their work and get this 
payroll tax cut extended for the rest of the year. That is what 
Republicans want. That is what the President says he wants. And there 
is no reason we shouldn't be able to get this done. The Democratic 
majority of the Senate should be leading that effort, not rooting for 
its failure.
  I yield the floor.

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