[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15308]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      THE COUNTRY NEEDS TAX RELIEF

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, we are indeed back here in a lame-duck 
session with the most important issue facing us, which is a deadline on 
taxes and revenue. By previous action, we have to act or certain 
conditions will be created that will cause us to lose jobs and hurt our 
economy and raise taxes on everybody.
  The President, the Senate, the Democrats, and the House are all in 
agreement that 98 percent of the country needs tax relief that has been 
given through the Bush tax cuts, and they should be extended.
  I think everybody agrees that we don't need to make draconian cuts to 
services for people, Social Security or Medicare, or defense. The only 
issue is my colleagues on the other side, the Republicans in the House, 
who seem to continue to want to give tax relief to the upper 2 percent. 
That's what divides this Nation and this Congress right now, tax cuts 
for the richest 2 percent.
  I call on my Republican colleagues to work with Speaker Boehner and 
allow him to lead this country in working with President Obama and to 
resolve this situation.

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