[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16185-16186]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            THE FISCAL CLIFF

  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I rise to bring attention to a 
critically important piece of legislation the Senate has passed and the 
House needs to pass immediately. It passed the Senate with bipartisan 
support. There are those on both sides of the aisle in the House of 
Representatives who support passing it. I am here to urge, in the 
strongest terms possible, that the Speaker bring up this bill before 
the House and get it passed.
  Many people, because of my speaking in the past, may think I am 
referring to the farm bill, which I also believe we need to have the 
House take up and pass because of our bipartisan work. But I actually 
am referring to the fact that we have only 27 days until we go over the 
fiscal cliff. For middle-class families what this means is 27 days 
before their taxes go up on average $2,200.
  What we are talking about is the fact that we passed a bill. We did 
not just pass a bill, we passed a bill in July. July 25 of this year 
the Senate passed a bill to extend tax cuts on all income up to 
$250,000. That is for anyone. It is now sitting in the House and 
everybody agrees middle-class families should not get a tax increase. 
Yet they have not taken it up. This needs to be taken up and passed 
before the end of the year so we can make sure middle-class families do 
not get caught in what we are talking about, which is the fiscal cliff.
  For a family on a budget, $2,200 more in taxes means a lot of things. 
It means a lot of things as families are trying to figure out how to 
pay for Christmas this year. It is not an accident that we are seeing 
layaway becoming very popular again as families are trying to figure 
out how to make sure their children have the Christmas they want to 
give them, yet juggle their cash flow situation in trying to figure out 
how to pay for it and pay the bills. That $2,200 will make a huge 
difference to millions of families. It is the difference between just 
paying the regular bills--utility bills, the mortgage, the rent, the 
car payment.
  There is absolutely no reason families should find themselves in this 
situation right now when they are worried about this, absolutely none. 
As I said before, we passed a bill on July 25--not August, not 
September, not October, July 25--to get this issue off the table. We 
know there are broader issues on which we have to come together. There 
has to be a balanced approach, we know that, on long-term deficit 
reduction. But we said in the Senate, on a bipartisan basis, we do not 
want middle-class families caught in the middle of that. We do not want 
them being held hostage in order to get an additional tax break for 
multimillionaires.
  It has been 132 days since the House Republican leadership got that 
bill. For 132 days they have been refusing to take it up. I commend the 
Democratic leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi, for now bringing forward 
a discharge petition to bring that directly to the floor. I think it is 
widely believed--I certainly believe--that there are enough votes on 
the floor of the House to pass this, to make sure middle-class families 
do not see an additional $2,200 coming out of their paychecks starting 
in January.
  For 132 days families have been waiting for their own economic 
certainty. Yet it still has not been taken up in the House. Christmas 
is 3 weeks from today. This is the worst possible time to create 
uncertainty for families across America. We also know this is about 
hurting the economy. It is a drag on consumer spending not to continue 
the tax cuts--consumer spending which makes up about 70 percent of the 
economy. So there is a direct relationship between what happens in 
growing the economy and what happens for middle-class families. Now we 
have 27 days for the House to get this done. There are 27 days to stop 
holding middle-class families hostage while we work out a larger 
agreement on what needs to be done on deficit reduction. All we need to 
do is to pass the Senate bill.
  Let me repeat. By extending this particular bill, every American will 
get a tax cut on their first 250,000 in income. The good news is that 
involves tax cuts for 98 percent of American families; 98 percent of 
American families will be protected from seeing any kind of a tax 
increase--and 97 percent of small businesses, by the way. So if someone 
has $1 over $250,000, they would not be protected from a tax increase. 
They would get the first $250,000 in tax cuts, but they would not get 
additional bonus tax cuts on top of that. This makes sure 98 percent of 
the American people do not see their taxes go up, and those who 
benefited the most by the tax cuts in the last decade will be able to 
step up and be part of the solution on deficit reduction, which the 
vast majority of people in this country agree is fair.
  People in Michigan are worried about what is going to happen. They 
come to me in the grocery store. I received many e-mails and calls to 
my office and meetings, on Facebook and Twitter. People in Michigan 
understand that $2,200 more coming out of their pockets next year can 
be devastating.
  Terri from Lansing told me she unexpectedly lost her job when her 
company went out of business and had to struggle in foreclosure, 
similar to many people, and used her Roth IRA to get by. ``I am part of 
the baby boomer generation and now I live paycheck to paycheck, just 
barely surviving.''
  Two thousand dollars makes a huge difference.
  Zelda from Washington writes that $2,200 is our groceries for 4 
months; 4 months of groceries for Zelda's family. That is what we are 
talking about if the Senate bill does not get passed by the House.
  Carol from Michigan writes:

       I am a retired grandmother getting a State pension and 
     Social Security. I also have three teenage grandchildren 
     living with me.

  That is not a new story for many people--``three teenage 
grandchildren living with me.''

       Any increase in anything might break me.

  Thomas from Grand Rapids writes:

       I will most likely have to find a job to make ends meet. So 
     much for being retired.

  Again, so many families, so many individuals find themselves in this 
situation. They think they have planned for their retirement and now 
cannot count

[[Page 16186]]

on what they thought would be there. They watch this and the fact that 
we have a choice to make sure tax cuts continue for 98 percent of the 
American families, middle-class families, that everybody gets a tax cut 
up to $250,000 a year. Yet the House Republicans will not even bring it 
up for a vote because they want extra tax cuts for multimillionaires? 
They look at that and they say: What, are you crazy? This makes 
absolutely no sense.
  President Obama ran on a plan to end the tax breaks for millionaires; 
basically, that plan that passed the Senate, by the way, on a 
bipartisan vote. He ran on a plan that would say those savings would 
then be applied to deficit reduction. We know that is so critical.
  We saw what people thought about that. He was reelected by a wide 
margin. The American people want us to come together, to work together 
in a bipartisan way to reduce the deficit, and they support the 
approach that starts by making sure middle-class families are not once 
again asked to pay for the full burden of what needs to be done. They 
support an effort that says extend tax cuts for middle-class families 
and ask those at the very top who have gotten extra tax cuts to forgo 
those and chip in to be part of the larger deficit reduction solution.
  Unfortunately, yesterday Speaker Boehner ignored this when he offered 
a Republican counterproposal to the President's proposal that would 
essentially raise taxes on middle-class families and cut Medicare for 
our senior citizens. As Senator Reid said yesterday, ``It flunks the 
test of balance.''
  To get the kind of revenue to reduce the deficit that is needed, that 
we all agree has to be done, their plan does some radical things. Their 
idea of revenue is to continue the tax cuts for any income above 
$250,000 for multimillionaires and, instead, to get rid of tax 
deductions used by middle-class families. So middle-class families 
might not have a mortgage deduction on their home that millions of 
people rely on; the student loan deduction for middle-class families 
that is allowing college to be more affordable; the charitable giving 
deduction that middle-class families rely on when they donate to 
churches and other nonprofits; the marriage penalty; the child credit; 
the mortgage tax relief deduction I offered to make sure if someone has 
to do a short sale at the bank, they do not pay extra taxes.
  That is important for everyone to understand; that we--and I am 
speaking now as a Senate majority--are not going to balance the budget 
on the backs of middle-class families. We are not going to balance the 
budget, reduce the deficit by asking middle-class families who had the 
biggest hit of anybody with everything that has happened in the 
recession--and I certainly can speak for Michigan on this--we are not 
going to put the burden on middle-class families one more time. That is 
not what this is about.
  On election day 60 percent of voters said they wanted to end the 
extra tax breaks for people making over $250,000--for income over 
$250,500. Yet the House Republican leadership wants to welcome middle-
class families into the new year by having their taxes go up on average 
$2,200. As Zelda from Michigan said, that is 4 months of groceries. No 
way. There is no way I am going to support letting that happen.
  Thankfully, we do have Republican colleagues who join us wanting to 
get this passed. We did in the Senate and those speaking out in the 
House and I commend them. Congressman Tom Cole from Oklahoma stated the 
obvious last week--and I encourage and congratulate him for speaking 
out. He said Republicans should immediately extend the tax cuts for 
families making under $250,000 a year. That is what he said. I agree 
with that. His Oklahoma constituents praised him. His constituents 
praised him. Unfortunately, his leadership dismissed him. The 
Washington Post reported that 70 percent of the calls to Congressman 
Cole's Washington, DC, office are positive and that 90 percent of his 
calls back home in Oklahoma--90 percent--have supported his position.
  Congressman Cole knows he should be listening to his constituents, 
and he is. If we all listened to the people we represent and if the 
House leadership listens to the people of this country and those they 
represent, they will pass the bill we sent to them in July.
  If taxes go up for middle-class families on January 1, people are 
going to know who is responsible for letting that happen. I urge House 
Republican leadership to take up S. 3412, the Middle-Class Tax Cut Act, 
pass it now, so the overwhelming number of families in this country 
have certainty going into this important holiday season and into the 
new year, so they can enjoy the season without knowing that their taxes 
are going to be going up on January 1. As of today we have 27 days 
before the vast majority of people in America--98 percent--see tax 
increases occur. It makes no sense, there is no reason for it to 
happen, and we have already passed a bill. If the House passes a bill, 
that is step one. Step one very clearly says we are all together on 
supporting the middle class continuing their tax cuts. We know there is 
more to do. We are fully prepared to do that. But step one is to make 
sure the middle class is not held hostage while the debate goes on 
about what should happen for the wealthiest few in this country.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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