[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 18890]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         MIDDLE-CLASS TAX CUTS

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I had hoped we would be able to come to 
agreement with Republicans to hold votes today to protect middle-class 
families. But the Republican caucus would not agree, so we will have a 
series of votes tomorrow on the tax rates set to expire at the end of 
this month.
  Democrats' priorities are clear. We are protecting middle-class 
families every way we can. Tomorrow's votes will show where Republican 
priorities are and where ours are. Those votes will clearly demonstrate 
who supports the middle class, and that includes every Senator.
  The minority can spin any way they want what has taken place over the 
last 24 hours. They can pretend giving the rich tax breaks creates 
jobs, even though we know from the past decade that it does not. If 
that were the case, the economy would be booming, except during the 
last years of the Bush administration, when those tax cuts were in 
effect, we lost 8 million jobs. They can pretend we can afford to give 
billionaires another handout, even though we know we can't. But no 
matter how many times you pretend, it doesn't make it true. The truth 
is simple: Holding middle-class tax cuts hostage for tax breaks for the 
wealthy that they don't need and we cannot afford is irresponsible.
  A lot has been written about the letter that 42 Republican Senators 
sent me a couple days ago. Maybe it is news that they put it in 
writing, but that is all that is new about it because, as the Presiding 
Officer knows, everything we have tried to do legislatively this year 
has been stymied, stopped with filibusters, well more than 100. 
Republicans have been holding good legislation hostage for 4 years--
important bills, noncontroversial bills, every bill. That is why we 
have a lameduck session with such a long to-do list.
  Interestingly, I heard one Republican Senator, my friend, the senior 
Senator from Tennessee, say: The majority leader fills the tree. They 
have had lots of opportunities to offer amendments. The problem is, it 
is not the offering of amendments. We will allow them to offer 
amendments, but they are not satisfied with that. They want the 
results. They are not willing to offer an amendment they may lose. They 
are only willing to offer amendments they want to win. If they don't 
win them, then they stop everything. That isn't the way it has been 
done around here, and it should not be done in the future that way.
  Since they sent me that letter, a lot of focus has been on the 
political impact of this game. I am more interested in the impact on 
the people I represent than the political games being played.
  When Republicans take their ball and go home, here is what happens: 
More than 83,000 Nevadans who are jobless and looking for work will 
lose their unemployment insurance over the next year. The Council of 
Economic Advisers predicted that will cost the country 600,000 jobs.
  What else happens? A treaty that will make Americans safer goes 
nowhere, a treaty supported by the entire military leadership and 
endorsed yesterday by the Secretaries of State of the last five 
Republican Presidents. Without the START treaty, there are more nuclear 
weapons than there should be, we know less about the Russian nuclear 
arsenal than we need to, and Americans are less safe.
  Here is one more consequence of the Republican ultimatum: Thousands 
of first responders who rushed to Ground Zero on 9/11 got terribly sick 
from the toxins there. The longer Republicans stall, the longer these 
heroes have to wait for the health care and compensation they deserve.
  Why are tens of thousands of unemployed Nevadans at risk of losing 
their lifeline? Why is Nevada at risk of losing jobs when we are 
desperate to create them? Why is the START treaty stalled? Why are the 
9/11 heroes still sick with nowhere to turn? Each of these questions 
has the same answer--because Republican Senators want to give their 
richest friends a tax break they don't need, many don't want, and none 
of us can afford.

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