[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Page 13248]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           AMERICAN JOBS ACT

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I applaud the bipartisan approach taken by 
the President last night regarding his jobs act. He described it and 
described it well. It is really a commonsense plan, and this plan will 
be a tax cut for middle-class families and even small businesses. It 
will put laid-off teachers and first responders back to work. It will 
send construction workers to jobsites around the country to renovate 
schools and to build roads and bridges. It will also ensure that Iraq 
and Afghan veterans who have returned from serving their country come 
home to a job. It will also help Americans who have been unemployed for 
far too long keep their families afloat while they look for jobs.
  Reagan Republicans would have embraced this reasonable, commonsense 
approach, the so-called American Jobs Act. All the ideas in this 
legislation have been supported by Democrats and Republicans in years 
past. Some of the ideas originally came from Republicans.
  This jobs plan won't add a single penny to the deficit. In fact, we 
all know reducing unemployment is the fastest way to reducing the debt.
  I urge reasonable Republicans to resist the voices of the tea party 
and others who would oppose this legislation and root for our economy 
to fail. It is sad that they do, but they do, and they do it for 
political reasons. They should see that this proposal is made up of 
bipartisan ideas, supported in the past by Members of both parties. 
They must not continue to bow to the tea party Republicans, who are 
willing to do anything to hurt the President. Instead of hurting the 
President, they are causing a tea party recession. We cannot allow 
their radical political agenda to crowd out America's jobs agenda.
  The uncertainty of this summer--the fight over whether to default on 
our financial obligations and a shocking credit downgrade--has rocked 
an economy that was already shaky. But this fall and this legislation 
offer us an opportunity to set the American economy back on the right 
track, and we need to do that.
  I look forward to studying the President's bill. The Senate will 
begin debate on this proposal as soon as possible. I know not every 
Republican will support this legislation, and I know not every Democrat 
will support all aspects of the legislation, but it is a good piece of 
legislation, and we need to work together. I look forward to an open, 
honest, and respectful debate. So I hope my Republican colleagues will 
contribute constructively to this process in the coming weeks rather 
than resorting to the obstructionist tactics which have so dominated 
Washington for the last 8 months. I hope a new day of compromise is 
dawning.

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