[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 2 (Friday, January 4, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E17]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            THE JOB PROTECTION AND RECESSION PREVENTION ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BOBBY L. RUSH

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, January 4, 2013

  Mr. RUSH. Mr. Speaker, it is New Years 2013. The Nation now finds 
itself at an urgent crossroads.
  America has fallen over the fiscal cliff. Many of our fellow and most 
economically vulnerable Americans are now in a free fall. How far they 
fall and for how long will be up to Congress.
  The House of Representatives should be deciding now, and by that I 
mean today, whether to pass the Job Protection and Recession Prevention 
Act of 2012, which was passed in the Senate by an overwhelming 
bipartisan 89-8 vote.
  If the House of Representatives fumbles this opportunity, it won't 
matter to these Americans which political party tells them that they 
did or did not cut taxes, or which party held more closely to its 
campaign promises.
  What matters to the 2 million Americans who are currently unemployed 
is why are their unemployment benefits being held hostage to provide 
tax cuts for employed and more well-off Americans?
  The deal agreed to in the Senate provides a strong enough platform 
for our country's continued progress and economic recovery. That 
package will generate a good deal of the increased tax revenues that 
our U.S. Treasury needs to operate the government.
  The Senate's package assures millions of students and unemployed and 
poor Americans that they will have the basics to carry out their daily 
lives and to advance their educational and career goals. Among other 
things, the Senate deal would also authorize the Farm Bill through 
September of this year.
  Extending earned income and child care tax credits and benefits, as 
the Senate deal would do, may not mean much for middle class families 
and individuals. But guess what? Those credits and benefits are hugely 
important, for example, to a family of four under the poverty level, 
which on average makes only $21,000 per year.
  The Senate's proposal, which the Majority should bring up immediately 
for a vote is a good compromise. It won't give Republicans everything 
that they want. Similarly, Democrats are not getting all of what they 
want in this package.
  And rightly so--neither party has all the answers to the plethora of 
very complex fiscal problems we are facing. Compromise is the solution, 
just as compromise will be the solution when we come up against 
sequestration, the debt ceiling, and passing a continuing budget 
resolution.
  I strongly urged you, Mr. Speaker, to call up H.R. 8, the Job 
Protection and Recession Prevention Act, as amended and passed by the 
Senate for a vote in this House. Let's stop dangling innocent and 
vulnerable Americans over the fiscal cliff; they've waited too long for 
us to act as it is.