[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 20032-20033]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         HOUSE HOLIDAY HUMBUGS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Maryland (Ms. Edwards) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. EDWARDS. Mr. Speaker, as families prepare for the holidays, many 
will gather to watch some of our favorite holiday movies. In my family, 
we always enjoyed watching ``How the Grinch Stole Christmas,'' tuning 
into ``A Christmas Carol,'' and one of my favorites, ``It's a Wonderful 
Life.''
  Well, Mr. Speaker, it won't be necessary to visit the local Redbox or 
scour the TV Guide listings or order the movies on Netflix. Americans 
across this country can tune in to C-SPAN and watch our own version of 
the Grinch and Ebenezer Scrooge and Henry Potter, our House holiday 
humbugs right here on the floor of the House of Representatives.
  The American people can only hope, however, that they can redeem 
themselves, our holiday humbugs, the way these characters did. But I 
fear that's not possible.
  Yesterday, House Republicans brought to the floor a payroll tax 
credit and an unemployment insurance proposal trimmed in controversial 
riders and deceit. The holiday humbugs, the GOP leadership, decorated 
the payroll tax credit and unemployment insurance bill with a 
controversial Keystone pipeline rider to sweeten the deal for their 
caucus. But that wasn't enough. The majority gilded the proposal with 
cuts to essential health care reform funding, a freeze in Federal 
employee pay for yet another year, and a cut in the length of emergency 
unemployment insurance and blocking the administration from moving 
forward on environmental protections that will help our families 
breathe, drink, and live more healthfully.
  Now, today, we heard from the House holiday humbugs that the big 
problem facing the unemployed that House Republicans tried to fix 
yesterday was drug testing for the unemployed.

                              {time}  1040

  Well, Mr. Speaker, the problem for the unemployed isn't drugs, it's a 
job. And in the absence of a job, it's an unemployment check.
  So for the holidays, my Republican colleagues put on their list a 
proposal that would dip further into the pockets of low and middle-
income families that buy health insurance in the new health exchanges. 
And during this holiday season, at a time in our Nation's economy when 
consumption has grown by only 5 percent since June 2009, our Holiday 
Humbug proposal by Republicans would cut holes in the pockets of 
millions of our Nation's consumers.
  The legislation passed in the House yesterday would freeze the 
compensation of 2.65 million Federal employees all across this country, 
Federal employees who are consumers, Mr. Speaker. So while the special 
interests and the Wall Street fat cats and the big oil companies are 
enjoying their large Christmas bonuses, Federal employees who have 
already contributed $60 million in forgone pay for deficit reduction 
will be required to give up even more.
  The Republican plan hits struggling families even harder. In fact, 
the bill passed yesterday by our holiday humbugs eliminates 40 weeks of 
unemployment insurance. The funding for this program not only helps 
families check off items on their Christmas list--things like rent, 
things like childcare, and things like groceries--but the funding 
brings money back into the American economy. In fact, the Congressional 
Budget Office estimates that every dollar of benefits spent on 
unemployment compensation generates about $2 of additional economic 
activity. That's money directly into our economy.
  The Republican proposal passed in the House yesterday would eliminate 
over $22 billion in economic growth and result in the loss of 140,000 
jobs in 2012. That's what happened in this House yesterday. My 
colleague, Sander Levin from Michigan, recognized that the legislative 
``holiday gift'' that the Republicans thought they were providing the 
American worker this Christmas is just one big lump of coal. Their 
proposal would leave millions of Americans out in the cold this holiday 
season while imposing additional barriers to receiving assistance and 
diminishing the protections of unemployed workers.
  Throughout the day yesterday the holiday humbugs kept trying to point 
to places where we could compromise. Well, the American people are 
asking: Why not simply compromise on a clean extension of the payroll 
tax credit for 160 million workers and unemployment

[[Page 20033]]

insurance? Why not ensure that 160 million hardworking families can 
benefit from the average of $1,000 they will receive from the payroll 
tax credit--again, right into the economy.
  Yesterday the Republican majority decided they would rather risk 
raising taxes and digging into the pockets of families all across this 
country. Well, Mr. Speaker, not even Scrooge could do what we saw on 
the floor yesterday. In the end, our holiday humbugs--the Grinch, Mr. 
Scrooge, and even Mr. Potter--learned that there is redemption. It's 
time for our House Republicans to do the same. I urge the majority to 
instead bring to the floor a sensible and thoughtful piece of 
legislation to extend unemployment compensation and the payroll tax 
credit.

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