[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5599-5600]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        MIDDLE-CLASS TAX RELIEF

  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, the middle class is the backbone of 
our Nation. Middle-class families sustain our neighborhoods and our 
economy and support our public services such as our schools and police 
and fire departments and libraries.
  Over the last 2 weeks--last week and the week before--I traveled 
extensively across Ohio and met with Ohioans who define the character 
of the American middle class.
  College students at the University of Toledo described their hopes 
and aspirations to become our next educators and entrepreneurs, 
community and business leaders, and civic activists.
  Workers at the 60-year-old General Motors plant in Defiance, near the 
Indiana border, described how they are ready to build the next 
generation car engines and rebuild the middle-class communities in 
which they work and live.
  In Cincinnati, workers at GE's historic Evendale plant--a Cincinnati 
suburb--represent the classic American success story: people working 
hard, getting ahead, getting paid an honest day's wage for an honest 
day's work.
  I met with veterans. Chairman Akaka allowed me to set up, in 
Cambridge, OH--in eastern rural Appalachian Ohio--a Veterans' Committee 
hearing. I met with other veterans in the Chillicothe VA Center and the 
Cincinnati VA Center--two terrific VA facilities--to meet with and talk 
to and understand better the services for veterans who return from war 
and who represent those values of hard work and fair play.
  Too many middle-class families in the Presiding Officer's State--
whether it is Joliet, IL--or Mansfield, OH, too many middle-class 
families are still fighting to have something to show for it. They are 
fighting for a secure job with decent wages, a home with an affordable 
mortgage, and the belief that their children will have a future full of 
opportunity and stay close by and raise their children so they can know 
their grandparents.
  Tax day is today, April 15, and many middle-class Americans are just 
trying to get by while our economy begins to recover. That is why when 
President Obama and this Congress--the Senate and the House--enacted 
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act last year, we made sure that 
one-third of those several hundred billion dollars--one-third of those 
dollars went to tax relief for 95 percent of working families in 
America.
  We hear my colleagues on the other side of the aisle talk about tax 
cuts as if they invented them, but we don't hear them tell the truth 
about tax cuts because their idea of tax cuts is overwhelming tax 
benefits to the wealthiest people in our society--not doing what 
President Obama and the House and Senate did last year and this year: 
providing those tax breaks and tax cuts and tax relief directly to the 
large middle-class and working class in this country. Middle-class 
taxpayers, as a result, can collect on more than a dozen Recovery Act 
tax benefits this season. While the Recovery Act is putting Americans 
back to work rebuilding America, it is also honoring the dignity of 
work through the Making Work Pay tax credit. On average, Ohioans 
received $496 through the Making Work Pay tax credit, $496 in people's 
pockets. Middle-class tax relief helps make college more affordable 
through the American Opportunity Credit, tax savings for up to $2,500 
to pay college expenses. More homes can be energy efficient and less 
costly through energy efficiency and renewable energy incentives. 
Energy-efficient windows and doors and heating and cooling systems 
reduce utility bills, while increasing the value of the most important 
asset for many Americans--their home. The first-time home buyer tax 
credit has made the dream of home ownership a reality, helped create 
jobs, stabilized home prices, and rebuilt communities across the 
Nation.
  These are tax breaks that have been enacted that Americans are 
already taking advantage of and, in many cases, celebrating on this day 
that people aren't particularly glad to see: April 15. It means this 
April 15 is a whole lot better for American taxpayers than 2 years ago, 
when April 15 was for people who didn't have the tax relief the Obama 
administration has brought them.
  The Cash for Clunkers Program provided American consumers and Ohio 
consumers with vouchers to purchase new fuel-efficient vehicles. It was 
a resounding success. More Americans bought more American cars. That 
program stabilized the auto sector. It saved and created thousands of 
jobs across Ohio and the Nation. I saw these jobs being created in 
Defiance, OH, as I mentioned, where some 80 workers will be called back 
to help build the engine for the new Chevy Cruze made in Youngstown. I 
know those workers at GM in Parma, a Cleveland suburb, will be helping 
with some of the stamping and the fabrication of the Chevy Cruze, and I 
know that 1,100 workers are in the process of being put back to work, 
to work a third shift at the Lordstown GM plant to build the most 
energy-efficient car in the GM fleet.
  Existing tax credits, such as the earned income tax credit which 
rewards work for people making $20,000 to $40,000 a year--this is not 
welfare; it rewards people who are working hard, playing by the rules, 
not making a lot of money--or the child tax credit, these existing tax 
credits were expanded to ensure more eligible Americans received the 
tax credits they earned. Nationwide, the average tax refund is up 10 
percent--$266 for a record average. The average tax refund is $3,036 so 
far. Those numbers will slightly change as people file today, before 
midnight.
  The IRS says this increase is largely due to the Recovery Act. 
Ninety-nine percent of working families and individuals in Ohio 
benefited from at least one of the tax cuts signed into law by 
President Obama. Working Ohioans received $1,046 on average as a result 
of these critical middle-class tax relief programs. That means because 
of what this Congress did, the Senate and the House, what President 
Obama did, middle-class Ohio families save over $1,000. That is $1,000 
in their pockets that wouldn't have been there 2 years ago, before 
President Obama took office, would not have been available under the 
Bush tax policies because those tax policies benefited the richest 
people but didn't benefit the middle class.
  So under the Bush tax policies, wealthier people were particularly 
happy, but the middle class was left out. Under Obama tax policies, 
wealthier people might not be quite so happy, but the broad middle 
class will have more than $1,000 extra in their pockets as a result of 
this middle-class tax relief. It is a critical part of the economic 
recovery.
  That is why the President and the Congress passed just last month the 
largest health-related, middle-class tax cut in the last two decades 
when it passed the historic health care reform, insurance reform 
legislation. We know there is much work ahead. I would add the first 
thing that came out of that legislation on health care was already in 
place and is now already in place; that is, significant tax incentives 
for small businesses, for employers to provide health insurance for 
their employees. When they couldn't afford it in the past, with these 
tax incentives, many employers will be able to afford providing health 
insurance for their employees.
  We know there is much work ahead to ensure the interests of the 
middle class are protected in our Tax Code over the corporate special 
interests. I know many Republicans, including those running for office 
in my State--for Governor and Senate and attorney general--many 
Republicans want to repeal the health care bill. But understand when 
they repeal the health care bill, they are doing what they have done in 
the past. They are taking from the middle class and giving to the 
wealthy. That is the class warfare I have heard on this floor for the 
last 3 years. It is the class warfare I heard in the House of 
Representatives when Republicans continued to do more and more for the 
richest people in this

[[Page 5600]]

country and less and less for the middle class and less and less for 
low-income people. That is the kind of class warfare they have waged 
for years. I hope they aren't successful in doing that on the health 
care bill. I don't think they will be, but it is important to guard 
against that.
  Senate Democrats are not just looking back with what we were able to 
do, we are looking forward to what we are going to do to make taxes 
work better for America. Senate Democrats are working on further tax 
relief to help middle-class families whose daycare costs for a young 
child or an elderly parent undercut their pay and their savings. We 
will continue to fight for middle-class tax relief that will rebuild 
our economy in Dayton and Springfield and Zanesville and Mansfield and 
Ravenna and Girard and Lima and restore prosperity for all Ohioans. We 
will continue to fight for college students in Toledo, the GM workers 
in Defiance, the GM workers in Evendale, and veterans and all middle-
class families across the Ohio and the country. America's middle class, 
as a result, will pay less and save more because this President and 
this Congress are actually doing something about it.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________