[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 164 (Wednesday, December 19, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Page S8157]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   PREVENTING FURTHER ECONOMIC DAMAGE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, there is still time to prevent 
further damage to the economy and to stop the automatic tax hike on 
every American that's scheduled to go into effect at the beginning of 
the New Year. The President has a real opportunity, the second in 2 
years, to do something significant about our debt crisis and jumpstart 
our economy. He has a real opportunity to show he can govern. He is 
letting that opportunity slip away.
  Senate Democrats and the White House now say that a ``balanced 
approach'' is one that can pass both the House and Senate. But we know 
that neither the Democrat bill in the Senate, nor the President's plan 
for more than a trillion dollars in tax hikes meets their own new test 
of `balance.'
  Speaker Boehner, like me, would like to prevent a tax hike on 
everyone. But given the President's failure to act, the House will soon 
vote on legislation to prevent a tax hike on anyone making less than a 
million dollars a year--rather than letting taxes go up on every 
American taxpayer; in other words, a plan that 53 of our Democrat 
colleagues here in the Senate already voted to support. It is a plan 
that would ensure far more American families and small businesses are 
protected from tax hikes than anything our Democrat friends have 
proposed.
  Democrats will have an opportunity to offer and vote on changes if 
they no longer agree with their previous positions. But what they 
cannot do is sit on their hands and let taxes go up on every American 
taxpayer. Senate Democrats have wasted precious time all year with show 
votes designed to fail. That has left us with little time to do the 
real work that needs to be done. But there is still enough time for us 
to finish all of our work before this weekend, if we are all willing to 
stay late and work hard. For the sake of the people who sent us here, 
it can and should be done.

                          ____________________