[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18512]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          PAYROLL TAX CUT AND UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS EXTENSION

  (Mr. SIRES asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. SIRES. Mr. Speaker, with our economy struggling and unemployment 
remaining unacceptably high, now is not the time to take more money out 
of the pockets of hardworking Americans.
  The majority is opposing an extension of the payroll tax holiday, 
enacted earlier this year, that gave virtually all working Americans a 
much-needed tax cut. The payroll tax holiday cut the Social Security 
payroll taxes of over 160 million workers. Economic uncertainty both 
here in the U.S. and abroad makes this a dangerous time to eliminate an 
important tax cut that is saving American families an average of $1,000 
a year. Failing to extend the payroll tax holiday will raise taxes on 
millions of Americans, taking over $120 billion out of the pockets of 
consumers and out of the economy. In addition, failing to extend the 
unemployment insurance to those who have lost their jobs will take an 
additional $30 billion out of the economy and rob over a million 
unemployed Americans of much-needed income and assistance.
  Now is not the time to end these important tax cuts, and it is 
certainly not the time to pull the plug on the unemployed in our 
economy. I encourage my colleagues to pass both of these provisions as 
swiftly as possible.

                          ____________________