[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19218-19219]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           FUTURE OF AMERICA

  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, we are here now deciding what kind of 
a country America might be in the future--whether it will be a place we 
can look back at and remember when everybody had a chance at success.
  It is hard to believe that when we look at the vote we just had. It 
confirmed where the Republicans are on the issue of whether middle-
class families should get a tax break. The Republican answer, was no. 
The answer they gave on the middle-class families tax break was: 
Absolutely no. No, no, no.
  To the struggling single parent who wants to provide for their 
family, works hard every day, the Republicans said no way. To the 
recent college graduate trying to start a career but having trouble 
paying back college loans, paying rent, paying living costs, the 
Republicans said no. To the working couple, a family with a couple of 
kids who needs some help in this tough economy, the Republicans said 
no. No, no, no. The Republicans refuse to help them because their 
mission is to shield the wealthy from paying their fair share of our 
country's obligations.
  Across our country, Americans are watching Republicans in this 
Congress and wondering what they are going to do to supply 
encouragement and hope for people who need it. Are we going to be 
simply a big accounting firm, simply doing the auditing, or are we 
going to be there to stimulate activity for people, to give them a 
chance to elevate their living standards for their family, to get their 
kids educated, and take care of the family necessities?
  Right now, 14 million Americans are jobless, and they are worried 
about how they are going to stay in their homes, feed their children, 
and keep their families warm this winter. But unemployed Americans are 
not the only people who are struggling. Hard-working Americans from all 
walks of life are struggling to make ends meet. They are coping with 
skyrocketing grocery prices, surging health premiums, soaring college 
tuition.
  In my home State, 1 in 10 New Jerseyans is on food stamps, the 
highest level in more than a decade. New Jersey has traditionally been 
among the top States per capita income in the country, within the top 
three, often in the first position.
  On this side of the aisle, we are trying to help struggling families. 
I learned the hard way about family struggles when I was growing up. My 
father took ill with cancer when he was 42; I was 18. My mother, when 
my father died, was 37 years old. We had all kinds of obligations to 
pay. My mother took over the family leadership. We owed money for the 
pharmacy, for hospitals, for doctors. We were virtually bankrupt. I had 
enlisted in the Army. Next week, it will be 69 years ago that I 
enlisted in the Army, in December of 1942.
  I know how tough it was and how much aggravation accompanies a family 
who just cannot keep their heads above water.
  Here we are, in a day of some incredible wealth around this country--
around this room--and Republicans are trying to thwart our efforts to 
extend and expand the payroll tax cut for working families--for people 
who depend upon their incomes to take care of their family needs; not 
on their savings, not on their inheritance, on their jobs.
  Millions of American families have benefitted from this tax cut that 
we have had this year, but it stands to expire at the end of December. 
Our side is eager to continue this tax cut and increase the size of 
that cut to help these families. In my State, this means a typical 
family would receive a total tax cut of $2,100 next year. For parents 
who are trying to feed their families, educate their kids, pay their 
bills, an extra $2,100 goes a long way. To make sure that all working 
families receive this much needed relief next year, we are asking 
America's millionaires to pay their fair share, but the Republicans 
would rather protect their wealthy friends than continue the payroll 
tax cut for working families.
  First, the Republicans blocked our side's efforts to cut taxes for 
the middle class. Then the Republicans offered their own plan. It was a 
disgrace. Their plan calls for a much smaller middle-class tax break, 
which they would have paid for by laying off 200,000 middle-class 
government workers. That is how they would solve the problem--fire 
people. Don't take it out of your bank account, don't take it out of 
your salary--even if you make over $1 million a year--fire people. That 
will make sure they understand we are not as concerned about them as we 
are about the person who makes over $1 million a year.
  It was a cynical ploy. It showed the other side's true stripes. The 
Republicans say they are for lower taxes, but we now see that only goes 
for the jet set. Their tax-cutting zeal doesn't extend to the middle 
class. Republican priorities? Raise taxes on middle-class families. 
Middle-class families do not have it easy in America today. Republicans 
want to raise their taxes to protect the luxuries for the millionaires.
  Make no mistake. Working families will suffer if the Republicans 
continue to block our efforts to extend and expand the payroll tax cut, 
and so will our economy. Last week, Barclays Bank warned that our GDP 
will drop 1.5 percent if the payroll tax cut is allowed to expire.
  The choice is clear. We can continue the payroll tax cut for working 
families or we can allow the Republicans to continue running their 
millionaires' protection ring. The fact is, American millionaires are 
doing just fine. They don't need protection from the Republicans. Since 
the 1980s, our country's wealthiest 1 percent have seen their average 
household income increase by 55 percent. But for the bottom 90 percent, 
average household income has not increased at all.
  As we see here, even though incomes are growing for the very wealthy, 
their taxes are actually going down.
  We can also look at CEOs to see how well the wealthy are faring. CEOs 
at the largest companies are now paid an average salary of $11 million 
a year. That is 343 times as much as the average worker's salary of 
$33,000.
  It used to be a much more modest comparison. In 1980, CEOs made 42 
times the average worker's pay. Just look at that. Just a few decades 
ago the pay was much more reasonable, and the people who were working 
in the mills and making products and doing the service jobs and all of 
that were living significantly better than they are today.
  Millionaires are making much more money today than they did in those 
years past. This is something I know something about directly. I was 
the president of a very large company when I came to the Senate. And 
you know how I got there: I had a boost from our country. I had 
enlisted in the Army, and I served in Europe. I got the GI bill. I went 
to Columbia University. It happened because the country said: Frank, if 
you can learn we will help you. We will pay your tuition because you 
served your country. I've done well because my country invested in me, 
and I'm willing to invest more in my country today to help the next 
generation.
  That company I helped start with two other fellows has 45,000 
employees today; 45,000 people are working at ADP, the company I helped 
start, because we had a chance at an education and to learn what we had 
to do to be in management, what we had to do to be in leadership.
  Our goal should not be to protect millionaires and billionaires who 
don't need our help. We should focus on the foundation that our society 
requires to function. We should be focused on protecting Medicare, food 
safety, Head Start.
  Imagine, they want to take seats away from Head Start Programs. I 
visited a Head Start Program in New Jersey just a few weeks ago, and I 
saw the children. They were 3, 4, 5 years old. They were interested in 
learning something. I talked to them, and I wanted--one of the little 
kids came over and hugged me around the knees. I wanted to pick him up 
and take him home. He was so beautiful, so nice. I thought: Here is a 
child, learning. He came from a single-parent family.

[[Page 19219]]

  The people who need help--we should be focusing on protecting them 
and giving them a chance to grow. We should be about making sure they 
have proper Medicare, that food safety is taken care of. Head Start, 
home heating for the poor, and other essential programs--we should be 
protecting them from reckless cuts.
  The Republicans who served on the supercommittee refused, before the 
negotiations were started--refused to ask wealthy Americans to pay 
their fair share. They practically took an oath that they would demand 
nothing more of the wealthy, when the country is deeply in debt, 
starving for a better way to solve our problems.
  As a result, the poor and the middle class are going to have to make 
up the difference. These are the people who need help the most right 
now. We must act now to protect the vital programs on which they rely. 
If we fail to act, our country and our economy will continue to 
suffer--especially Americans who are already struggling. It is just 
plain heartless to continue asking the poor, the middle class, the 
elderly, and our children to bear the entire burden of these brutal 
economic times.
  It does not hurt any of us who have been successful to pay a fair 
share. It might cost a few dollars more, but if you are making over $1 
million a year, look in the mirror and see if you have done it all by 
yourself or whether it took the help of your country to get there. 
There is a whole cadre of people working across America--they go to 
work every day because they want to make a week's pay and take care of 
their kids and take care of their obligations. That is the foundation 
that built America. It is the foundation of the development of 
something that was called the ``greatest generation.''
  That was the generation in the last century who served in World War 
II. All of us had an opportunity to get a college education when we 
otherwise would not have been near a college.
  That built our country. That strengthened our foundation. Now we see 
people, Republicans, who want to make it tougher for people to make a 
living, tougher for people to get an education, tougher to provide heat 
for people who desperately need it in the wintertime, tougher to think 
ahead and say: You know what. I know my children will do better than I 
have done in my life.
  That used to be a truism in our view of life in this country. We 
don't hear that much anymore because people are unsure, and it does not 
help to have the Republicans sticking up for the wealthiest among us 
and turning their backs on working-class families in this country, the 
middle-class families. It is not right.
  I hope the people across this country will say: No. We are going to 
say no to these Republican policies. I hope our Republican colleagues 
will disband their millionaires' protection game, stop standing in the 
way, and start standing up for everyday Americans who need our help.
  Help us continue the payroll tax cut for working families. Help us 
protect the programs that benefit the people who need them most. Help 
us, friends on the Republican side, to make America even stronger than 
it is today. We can do that.
  Countries are failing all over the globe. America need not to do 
that. We just have to make sure that while we take care of our 
expenses, we also make sure we have the revenues to do the job.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Franken). The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Shaheen). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

                          ____________________