[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 13448-13449]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             THE JOBS PLAN

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, last week President Obama came up to 
Capitol Hill to unveil a stimulus bill he is calling a jobs plan, and 
yesterday the White House explained how they would like to pay for it. 
The first thing to say about this plan is that it is now obvious why 
the President left out the specifics last week. Not only does it reveal 
the political nature of this bill, it also reinforces the growing 
perception that this administration is not all that interested in 
economic policies that will actually work.
  But none of this is news. Over the past few days, press reports have 
made it perfectly clear that this legislation is more of a reelection 
plan than a jobs plan. It is an open secret which Democrats all over 
Washington have been acknowledging to reporters since the moment the 
President revealed it. They have said that despite the President's 
calls to pass this bill immediately, the real plan is to let it hang 
out there for a while so Democrats can use it as an issue on the 
campaign trail. What is more, the President knew as well as I did when 
he unveiled this plan that Democrats in the Senate had already 
scheduled a full slate of legislative business for the next few weeks. 
So unless the White House wants to admit that it has no regard for its 
own party's legislative business in Congress, the President's call for 
immediate action was clearly little more than a rhetorical flourish.
  But the specifics we got yesterday only reinforced the impression 
that this was largely a political exercise. For one, they undermined 
the President's claim that it is a bipartisan proposal because much of 
what he is proposing has already been rejected on a bipartisan basis. 
The $\1/2\ trillion tax hike the White House proposed yesterday will 
not only face a tough road in Congress among Republicans but from 
Democrats too.
  The central tax hike included in this bill, capping deductions for 
individuals and small businesses, was already dismissed by a 
filibuster-proof, Democratic-controlled Senate in 2009. Another idea 
floated by the White House yesterday, a tax on investment income, has 
been vehemently opposed by the No. 3 Democrat in the Senate, among 
others. A proposal to raise taxes on the oil and gas industry was 
rejected as a job-destroying tax hike by both Democrats and Republicans 
just a few months ago, and for good reason, since the nonpartisan 
Congressional Research Service tells us it would not only raise gas 
prices but, in addition to raising gas prices, would move jobs 
overseas. So claiming this bill is bipartisan may sound good if you are 
out there on the campaign trail, but surely the President could come up 
with some proposals that both sides had not already rejected.
  Here is how one prominent left-leaning analyst put it yesterday: 
``These aren't new policy ideas,'' he wrote. ``The Obama administration 
has been looking to cap itemized deductions since the 2009 budget. Nor 
are they bipartisan policy ideas. . . . ''
  The specifics we got yesterday were disappointing for another reason 
as well. Not only have they failed to attract wide bipartisan support 
in the past, even if they did enjoy bipartisan support they wouldn't 
create any jobs. The President knows raising taxes is the last thing 
you want to do to spur job creation. He said so himself. Yet that is 
basically all he is proposing: temporary stimulus to be paid for later 
by permanent tax hikes so that when the dust clears and the economy is 
no better off than it was after the first stimulus folks find 
themselves with an even bigger tax bill than today.
  The President can call this bill whatever he wants, but in reality 
all he is doing is proposing a hodgepodge of retread ideas aimed at 
convincing people that a temporary fix is permanent and that it will 
create permanent jobs, and then daring Republicans to vote against it.
  I think most people see through all of this. I think most Americans 
are smarter than that. I think they know our economic challenges are 
more serious than this and that they require serious long-term 
solutions. I think the American people realize we can do a lot better.
  I have talked with a lot of job creators over the past few weeks, 
including many in my own State. It is no secret that they need to 
create jobs. Every one of them says the same thing. Yet the President 
refuses to do any of it.
  If the President is truly interested in growing the economy and 
putting

[[Page 13449]]

Americans back to work, then he will leave the temporary proposals and 
the half measures and the tax hikes aside. He will consult with both 
parties and work with us on a plan that indicates he has learned 
something from the failures of the past 2 years and which actually has 
a chance of attracting bipartisan support.
  He could start with a permanent reform of our broken tax system, 
reducing out-of-control Federal regulations, and by passing the trade 
bills that have been sitting on his desk since Inauguration Day 2009. 
All of this is doable, all of it should attract bipartisan support, and 
all of it would actually create jobs. That would be a jobs plan worthy 
of the seriousness of the moment.
  But make no mistake, what the President proposed so far is not 
serious, and it is not a jobs plan. After what we learned yesterday 
that should be clear to everyone.
  I yield the floor.

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