[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 108 (Wednesday, July 18, 2012)]
[House]
[Page H4914]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               TAX CLIFF

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Tennessee (Mrs. Black) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. BLACK. Madam Speaker, it has been 41 months of unemployment 
above 8 percent, and the President is calling for higher taxes on small 
businesses. That is the devastating reality currently facing 13 million 
unemployed Americans.
  America's in the midst of a jobs crisis unlike anything this country 
has seen since the Great Depression. And the President's most recent 
answer to this crisis? A tax hike on small businesses to feed 
Democrats' insatiable appetite for more wasteful, ever-expanding 
government spending.
  This past week, the President followed up his recent call for higher 
taxes by scolding entrepreneurs. And I quote: ``If you've got a 
business, you didn't build it. Somebody else built that.''
  His disdain for American enterprise truly underscores that he not 
only doesn't know what it takes to start and run a business, but he is 
clueless about how jobs are created.
  If the President gets his way, instead of small businesses creating 
more paychecks for more workers, they will be paying more taxes to the 
Federal Government. I wonder if the President has considered the fact 
that small businesses create two out of every three new jobs in 
America? And that means, for the majority of the nearly 13 million 
unemployed Americans, their best hope of being able to provide for 
their family hinges on small businesses' ability to hire more people.
  The administration's onslaught of new regulations and ObamaCare's 
costly taxes and mandates have already placed a huge burden on our 
Nation's small businesses. The President now wants to add insult to 
injury and siphon away 201 billion more dollars from the American job 
creators.
  Now, a new study released yesterday from Ernst & Young confirms what 
many Americans already know: the President's latest tax hike plan would 
destroy 700,000 jobs and further weaken our struggling economy.
  The House is scheduled to vote in a couple of weeks on legislation to 
extend all of the current Federal income tax rates while, at the same 
time, laying the groundwork for making our Tax Code simpler and fairer 
by lowering rates and closing loopholes. Pro-growth tax reform is 
needed to help create the climate for job creation and to ensure more 
jobs stay right here in the United States.
  The most recent unemployment report shows that the number of people 
leaving the job market to go into Social Security disability outnumbers 
the number of people who are going back to work. Let me repeat that. 
The most recent unemployment report shows that the number of people 
leaving the job market to go on Social Security disability outnumbers 
the number of people who are going back to work.
  So, regardless of one's political ideology, it's truly unconscionable 
for the President or any Member of Congress to be calling for tax hikes 
on Americans when millions are out of work and the economy is still 
treading water.
  But, to make matters worse, this week many Democrat leaders in the 
Senate have said that they are willing to allow these taxes to increase 
for all Americans if they aren't able to get their way and raise taxes 
on 1.2 million small businesses. Now, every day the President and the 
Senate Democrats continue with this political posturing and class 
warfare nonsense while the economy suffers and small businesses suffer, 
and ultimately, the American people suffer.
  The question is, will the President and the Senate Democrats who run 
Washington work with the House Republicans to stop this huge, job-
killing tax increase from hitting small businesses and every American 
who pays an income tax? Or will they continue to insist on higher taxes 
to pay for wasteful government spending and bailouts for political 
allies?

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