[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16989]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     PASS THE MIDDLE CLASS TAX CUTS

  (Mr. PASCRELL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Speaker, middle class families are the backbone of 
our economy, and that is why we should not wait any longer to vote on 
extending tax cuts for these middle class families. There is near 
universal agreement to extend these cuts. There is also agreement that 
we should extend the investment portion of the current Tax Code. So we 
need a universal agreement to extend the cuts. We can and must take 
this action now. There is uncertainty within American families and 
there is uncertainty in businesses.
  Extension of these taxes have been held hostage by the discussion of 
whether to extend the rates for the wealthiest Americans. We can't 
afford $700 billion over 10 years just for the highest income earners 
with 79 percent of that $700 billion, get this, going to less than one-
fifth of 1 percent of all American taxpayers. That's preposterous.
  The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has said the extension of middle 
class tax cuts would affect less than 2 percent of all small business. 
My colleagues--Capuano, Higgins, and Owens--have put forth our own 
proposal: a 5-year extension of the current middle class tax cuts, a 5-
year extension of the current rates on long-term capital gains and 
qualified dividends, and a 1-year extension of the highest tax rates of 
those making up to $500,000.

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