[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 16350-16351]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        REBUILD AMERICA JOBS ACT

  Mr. REID. This week, Democrats introduced legislation that will put 
Americans back to work rebuilding this Nation's crumbling 
infrastructure. It will allow us to hire thousands of people to upgrade 
150,000 miles of roadways, thousands of miles of train tracks, and 
modernize our Nation's runways and air traffic control systems. The 
Rebuild America Jobs Act will invest $50 billion to ensure that our 
world-class economy has world-class infrastructure and get this economy 
working again.
  This is not a new issue. It is something that is long overdue. A 
number of years ago, I conducted a hearing in the Public Works 
Committee, where we brought in mayors from around the country, from 
Atlanta, Washington, DC, and other places around the country. They 
lamented the sorry state of the infrastructure. Sadly, in those 
approximately 10 years, nothing has been done--nothing.
  This commonsense plan we have proposed has enjoyed broad bipartisan 
support in the past. Many of my Republican colleagues in the Senate 
have spoken glowingly about what infrastructure investments could do to 
put people back to work and improve the economy in their States. Yet 
this week Republicans have raised a hue and cry against our plan 
because it has millionaires and billionaires--those whose income is 
more than $1 million--to contribute their fair share to right our 
listing economy.
  We don't cast a net over millionaires and billionaires, only those 
who make more than $1 million a year. The plan would require the 
richest of the rich in America to contribute a tiny fraction of income 
to that effort. They would pay a seven-tenths of 1 percent surtax on 
income in excess of $1 million a year. If someone made $1.1 million a 
year income, they would have to pay an additional $700 to put America 
back to work.
  Yet my Republican colleagues adamantly oppose this fair and balanced 
approach because it would require Americans who have done better each 
year for decades to contribute a tiny fraction more than they do now. 
These people are the top two-tenths of 1 percent of American 
taxpayers--two-tenths of 1 percent, the richest of the rich. Yet 
Republicans have put the interests of these millionaires and 
billionaires ahead of those who are desperate for work, and it has cost 
this Nation literally millions of jobs.
  It is important that we be clear about who these lucky few 
millionaires

[[Page 16351]]

and billionaires are who enjoy the protections of the Senate GOP. Who 
are they? Here is who they are: the same millionaires and billionaires 
whose annual aftertax income has increased by 275 percent over the last 
3 decades--I repeat, 275 percent. That is not a figure made up out of 
the blue by some rightwing or leftwing organization. It came from the 
nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. These are the same 
millionaires and billionaires whose annual aftertax income has 
increased by 275 percent over the last 3 decades.
  Between 1979 and 2007, the bottom 20 percent of wage earners saw 
their wages creep up slowly--18 percent. Meantime, the top 1 percent 
saw theirs double again and again and again, to almost a 300-percent 
increase. The bottom 20 percent of wage earners saw theirs go up 18 
percent. The people I have talked about--the millionaires and 
billionaires--have gone up almost 300 percent. In fact, their share of 
the Nation's income is higher than at any time since 1928--just before 
the stock market crash, plunging this Nation into the Great Depression. 
Their share of the national income has doubled since 1979. Listen to 
this. And now they take home more than half of all the money earned 
each year in this great country, even after taxes. They take home more 
than half the money earned each year in this country. That means this 1 
percent now makes more than the other 99 percent combined. And they are 
not going to allow us to proceed to create hundreds of thousands of 
jobs for a tax increase of seven-tenths of 1 percent on the richest of 
the rich? No one deprives them of their prosperity. They have worked 
hard, and it hasn't all been inherited money. We understand that. But 
their tremendous fortunes mean they can afford to contribute a tiny 
fraction more to shore up the economic future of our Nation.
  John D. Rockefeller, Jr., the grandfather of Jay Rockefeller from 
West Virginia, who serves in this body today, said:

       Every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an 
     obligation; every possession, a duty.

  Seventy-two percent of Americans, including 54 percent of 
Republicans, support the Democrats' plan to pull this Nation out of the 
worse recession we have seen since the Great Depression by investing in 
new roadways, runways, and railways. And 76 percent of Americans, 
including 56 percent of Republicans, agree the Nation's most privileged 
citizens should contribute a little more to help pay for it. Democrats, 
Republicans, Independents, and even the tea party favor this. They all 
believe in initiatives that we have proposed to jumpstart our economy, 
but they know the money will have to come from somewhere. They know 
tough choices must be made. The world out there supports what we are 
trying to do. The world inside this body, with the 47 Republicans who 
are stopping us with obstructionist tactics, is not allowing what 
America knows they want and need.
  Again, they believe in initiatives we have proposed to jumpstart our 
economy. They know the money will have to come from somewhere, and they 
know tough choices must be made.
  Asking someone making, for example, $1.1 million to contribute a few 
dollars more every year should not be one of our tough choices; it 
should be a no-brainer. Yet while Democrats fight for the middle class, 
it seems that Republicans will fight for the 1 percent of Americans who 
have every resource in America to fight for themselves.

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