[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 20058]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             TAX EXTENDERS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the taxpayer can claim a major 
accomplishment today. At a time of high economic anxiety, this tax 
relief extension bill we will be voting on later today encourages 
greater energy independence and delivers much needed relief to job 
creators across the country and ensures a much smaller tax bill for 
millions of American families.
  The Senate had been deadlocked on the provisions contained in this 
bill for a number of months, but in the end, Senators on both sides of 
the aisle shut out the partisan rancor of the Presidential election, 
hammered out a compromise, and delivered. The result is a tribute to 
all the Senators and many staffers on both sides who worked so hard to 
get us to this point.
  This legislation does a number of good things:
  It blocks the alternative minimum tax from hitting about 20 million 
middle-class American families, including 137,000 in Kentucky, from an 
average tax hike of about $2,000, and it doesn't raise taxes to do it.
  It helps American families who are struggling to cover the high cost 
of a college education by giving single parents and married couples a 
deduction of between $2,000 and $4,000 for college tuition payments 
through 2009.
  Teachers will continue to get a valuable deduction for educational 
expenses.
  Research and development, the heart of future growth, is also 
encouraged.
  At a time of record-high energy prices, this bill contains a number 
of incentives for increasing the use of clean energy and decreasing our 
dependence on Middle East oil. It extends a tax credit for companies 
that produce renewable energy from wind, solar, and biomass. Domestic 
carmakers get a new tax credit for investing in plug-in electric cars 
and trucks. Families that build energy-efficient homes will see 
substantial savings on their utility bills when they buy energy-
efficient freezers, dishwashers, and other energy-efficient, common 
household appliances. And refineries that process shale or tar sands 
will also see help--a critical new step in expanding domestic energy 
exploration and development.
  From a Kentucky standpoint, I recently met with a group of business 
leaders from west Kentucky who are pursuing a coal-to-liquids refinery 
in Paducah that could lead to more than 1,100 new jobs for Kentuckians. 
They viewed extension of the expiring tax incentives for refinery 
construction as an incredible economic development tool and an 
important step toward energy independence by using abundant Kentucky 
coal. And I was happy to help.
  Taken together, the tax extenders in this bill amount to more than 
$100 billion in tax relief for America's workers and job-creating 
businesses, and they provide much needed certainties for a nation that 
has faced enough uncertainty in recent weeks by ensuring that this 
relief stays in place through next year.
  This bill was not easy to complete. Both sides had to make major 
concessions to get a good result. But this is how the Senate works. 
With this bill, it worked very well, and both sides can take credit. 
This tax relief will help the American people at a moment when they can 
truly use the help.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, this will be the ninth vote we have had on 
the tax extenders as relates to renewable energy. There have been 
compromises made. I say to my good friend the Republican leader, one of 
the provisions I don't like in the bill is the coal-to-liquids. I wish 
it were not in there, but it is. I have been here long enough to 
understand that to get legislation passed, there have to be compromises 
made. I hope when this matter goes to the House of Representatives that 
they will take the seriousness of how difficult it has been for us to 
get this legislation passed.
  My friend talked about the importance of these tax credits for 
renewable energy. It is very important. But also there is another 
tranche that is extremely important, and that is the extenders for the 
business community. We have done something that has not been done in a 
long time. We have them for 2 years. This is a big step forward for the 
business community, and it is a step forward that is very important.
  I say to my friends on the other side of the Capitol, in the House: 
Don't send us back something else. We cannot get it passed. If they try 
to mess with our package, it will come back here, it will die, and we 
will have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. It would be a 
terrible shame that we would not be able to pass this legislation after 
having, for example, nine votes on the energy tax renewables. So I say 
to my friends in the House, Democrats and Republicans: Rise up and 
accept this because our procedures are different from the House. We can 
claim a victory for the American people by getting this done. And I 
hope we will have a resounding vote. I am confident we will on this 
legislation today.

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