[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 19831-19832]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1040
                            PAYROLL TAX CUTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Connolly) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, once again we are presented 
with a false choice today. In the Alice in Wonderland world of the 
House, Republicans oppose payroll tax cuts unless they can be used as a 
vehicle to cut unemployment benefits. According to the majority, it 
isn't worth passing a simple payroll tax cut without eviscerating 
Americans' health care. In this warped, parallel universe, payroll tax 
cut extensions must be accompanied by gratuitous measures to punish 
Federal employees and civil servants like Border Security agents and 
FBI agents. And, of course, the majority seems singularly incapable of 
writing any bill, especially at this time of year, Christmas, that 
doesn't contain

[[Page 19832]]

several special provisions to benefit the Koch Brothers and Big Oil 
giveaways.
  Sadly, this bill is consistent with the Republican pattern of 
extortion on behalf of an extreme special interest agenda. After almost 
shutting down the government, furloughing FAA employees, and blocking 
the appointment of a director to the Consumer Financial Protection 
Bureau and other agencies, now, believe it or not, they are holding tax 
cuts hostage.
  President Obama sent a simple legislative package to Congress: Extend 
the payroll tax cuts, saving the average American family $1,500 a year. 
Extend unemployment insurance benefits to create 1 million jobs and add 
1 full percentage of growth to the economy. This very proposal received 
a majority vote in the Senate but, of course, was blocked by a 
Republican filibuster. It did what the Republicans say they want to 
do--cut taxes and grow the economy. Too bad their actions don't match 
their words.
  Based on their rhetoric, one would think that Republicans would 
support a simple tax cut. That is, after all, their solution to every 
economic challenge: Cut taxes, especially for millionaires and large 
corporations. Yet when presented with a simple tax cut bill targeted to 
help the middle class in America, Republicans rebel and reject it in 
favor of a piece of special-interest sausage so laden with lobbyist 
giveaways and ideological poison pills that it would make the author of 
``The Jungle,'' Upton Sinclair's, nose turn blue.
  The bill before us today slashes unemployment benefits for Virginians 
in my home State by 38 percent, and it increases Federal employee 
pension contributions by 63 percent while reducing total pension 
payments. Federal employees, in other words, will pay more and get less 
retirement security after a lifetime of public service. For good 
measure, it extends public servants' pay freeze for a full 5 years. It 
contain a costly special interest policy rider that will increase oil 
exports to China and raise American gas prices. It repeals part of the 
Clean Air Act, allowing polluters to spew forth mercury, arsenic, and 
other toxic pollutants from industrial boilers. In fact, repeal of this 
Clean Air Act public health standard will burden the American economy 
with $20 billion to $52 billion in additional health care costs every 
year.
  We must remember what a perilous state the economy is in. Thanks to 
the successful Recovery Act and expansionary monetary policy, 
unemployment has fallen now to 8.6 percent. It would be 8.25 percent 
except for the fact that Republican policies have led to the loss of 
over a half-million public sector jobs throughout the United States. 
The number of underemployed and long-term unemployed Americans has 
fallen as people have found steady, full-time jobs, and private-sector 
job growth has been growing every month for 21 consecutive months. 
We're not out of the woods, but we are making progress.
  The Congressional Budget Office, McCain campaign adviser Mark Zandi, 
and Barclays Bank all estimate that extending unemployment benefits 
will increase the economy by a full 1 percent and add 1 million jobs. 
That's because unemployment benefits have a multiplier effect--they are 
spent as soon as they are gotten. The payroll tax cut, in addition, 
will provide Americans with an average of $1,500 per worker, creating 
some $250 billion in economic activity and adding 1 full percentage 
point to the GDP.
  The Speaker controls which bills come to the floor of the House. 
Let's junk this bill and come up with a clean payroll tax extension and 
unemployment benefits for all Americans, creating jobs and growing this 
economy.

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