[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 166 (Friday, December 21, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8323-S8324]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            THE FISCAL CLIFF

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, last night the House of Representatives 
proved what we have known for quite a while: Speaker Boehner's plan to 
raise taxes on 25 million middle-class taxpayers while handing out 
$50,000 bonuses to millionaires and billionaires was dead on arrival. 
We said that yesterday. We knew the so-called Plan B was no plan at 
all. It couldn't pass the Senate. It turns out it couldn't pass the 
House either. It is too bad Speaker Boehner wasted 1 week on this 
futile political stunt, and that is all we can call it.
  But at least now House Republicans have gotten the message loudly and 
clearly that any comprehensive solution to the looming fiscal cliff 
will need to be a bipartisan solution. No comprehensive agreement can 
pass either Chamber without both Democratic and Republican votes, which 
means any solution will have to ask the most fortunate among us to pay 
a little more to reduce the deficit and ensure partisanship doesn't 
take the Nation to the brink of default.
  Nothing that has passed the House of Representatives fits that test--
nothing. A few days ago President Obama and Speaker Boehner appeared 
poised to strike a grand bargain, but we have heard that before. 
Instead of making hard choices of compromise, as President Obama has 
been willing to do, the Speaker retreated to his corner and resorted to 
political stunts, but that stunt fell flat.
  It is time for the Speaker and all Republicans to return to the 
negotiating table. We have never left. It is time for Republicans to 
work with us to find the middle ground. That is the only hope of 
averting the devastating impacts of the fiscal cliff. The fiscal cliff 
needs to be avoided.
  In the meantime, the Speaker should bring the middle-class tax cut 
passed by the Senate 5 months ago to the floor of the House for a vote. 
We know it will pass. All he has to do is let Democrats vote with some 
Republicans and it will pass. The clock is ticking until the Nation 
goes over the fiscal cliff and taxes go up for every family in America. 
But there is still time for the Speaker to hit the brakes and avoid 
that cliff. We don't need the ``Thelma and Louise'' projection over 
that cliff.
  The Senate-passed bill would protect 98 percent of families and 97 
percent of small businesses from crippling tax hikes while President 
Obama and the Speaker work toward a compromise agreement. That 
agreement should be comprehensive. If Republicans truly want to ensure 
American families' taxes don't go up on January 1, they should simply 
pass the Senate bill. The only reason Speaker Boehner hasn't brought 
our bill to the floor sooner is

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he knows it will pass. He worked for a day or two seeing if he could 
bring that up so it wouldn't pass. That didn't work either.
  Americans are not fooled by the Speaker's phony procedural excuses 
for failing to bring this solution to a vote. They are tired of 
excuses. They expect action.
  Let me be very plain. There is nothing preventing the Speaker from 
taking up our bill and giving middle-class families certainty. I say to 
my friend, the Speaker: This isn't a game. It isn't about scoring 
political points or putting wins on the board. There will be very 
serious consequences for millions of families if Congress fails to 
compromise, and there will be very serious consequences for our country 
if Congress fails to compromise.
  It is time for the Speaker to return to the negotiating table ready 
to compromise, and it is time for the House--especially House 
Republicans--to remember what is at stake.
  I repeat, the $250,000 program would pass overwhelmingly in the 
House. It is up to the Speaker to let that vote occur.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican leader.

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