[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 18197-18198]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            THE FISCAL CLIFF

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, New Years Eve is fast approaching and for 
decades and decades the American people have watched the ball drop in 
Times Square. It is the countdown to midnight, the start of a new year.
  This year the American people are waiting for the ball to drop, but 
it is not going to be a good drop because Americans' taxes are moving 
in the wrong direction. Come the first of this year, Americans will 
have less income than they have today if we go over the cliff--and it 
looks as if that is where we are headed. The House of Representatives 
as we speak, with 4 days left after today to the 1st of the year, is 
not here, with the Speaker having told them he will give them 48 hours' 
notice. I can't imagine their consciences. They are out wherever they 
are around the country and we are here, trying to get something done.
  They are not in Washington, DC. The House of Representatives is not 
here. They could not even get the Republican leadership together 
yesterday. They had to do it with a teleconference.
  If we go over the cliff, we will be left with the knowledge it could 
have been prevented with a single vote in the Republican-controlled 
House of Representatives. Prior to this session starting today, the 
Presiding Officer and I had a conversation about how things have 
changed around here. I served in the House of Representatives. There 
are 435 Members of the House. What goes on in this country should not 
be decided by the majority, it should be decided by the whole House of 
Representatives. Everyone, including the Speaker of the House of 
Representatives, knows that if they had brought up the Senate-passed 
bill that would give relief to everyone making less than $250,000 a 
year, it would pass overwhelmingly. Every Democrat would vote for it 
and Republicans would vote for it. But the Speaker, he says: No; we 
cannot do that. It has to be a majority of the majority. So we have 
done nothing.
  He even tried to bring up the bill last week to show they could 
defeat it. They could not do that even. They could not defeat the bill 
that passed in the Senate.
  I don't think the American people understand the House of 
Representatives is not operating as a House of Representatives. It is 
being operated with a dictatorship of the Speaker not allowing the vast 
majority of the House of Representatives to get what they want. If the 
$250,000 threshold would be brought up, it would pass overwhelmingly, I 
repeat.
  On any given day for the last 5 or 6 months, since July 25, Speaker 
Boehner could have brought the Senate-passed middle-class tax cut 
legislation to a vote in the House and it would have passed. But he has 
made the decision he is not letting us have a vote on that because if 
he let it be voted upon, it would pass. I have said it is not too late 
for the Speaker to take up the Senate-passed bill, but even that time 
is winding down. Today is Thursday. He is going to give 48 hours' 
notice to the House before they come back. So 48 hours from today is 
Saturday. With just that one vote, middle-class families would have the 
security that taxes would not go up by at least $2,200 on New Year's 
Day. That is the average. Some would go up more, some less, of course.
  Speaker Boehner should call Members back to Washington today. He 
should not have let them go, in fact. They are not here. John Boehner 
seems to care more about keeping his speakership than about keeping the 
Nation on a firm financial footing. It is obvious what is going on 
around here. He is waiting until January 3 to get reelected as Speaker 
before he gets serious with negotiations because he has so many people 
over there who will not follow what he wants. That is obvious from the 
debacle that took place last week, and it was a debacle.
  He made an offer to the President. The President came back--they are 
just a little bit apart--and he walked away from that and went to Plan 
B. All that did is whack people who need help the most--poor people. He 
could not even pass that. Remember, he is not letting the House of 
Representatives vote. He is letting the Republicans vote. It was so 
bad, and he was in such difficult shape there he would not even let a 
vote take place with his Republicans because he knew he would lose. For 
months, he has allowed House Republicans to hold middle-class taxpayers 
hostage to protect the richest 2 percent, and the funny thing about 
that is the 2 percent do not want to be protected. The majority of 
people in our great country are willing to pay more. The only people 
who disagree with that are Republicans who work in this building.
  The Speaker just has a few days left to change his mind, but I have 
to be very honest; I don't know, timewise, how it can happen now. 
Everyone knows we cannot bring up anything here unless we do it by 
unanimous consent because the rules have been so worked the last few 
years that we cannot do anything without 60 votes. There are 53 of us. 
After the first of the year, there will be 55 of us.

[[Page 18198]]

  I hope the Speaker and the Republican leader in the Senate would come 
to us and say here is what we think will work. Let's find out what that 
could be because the Speaker cannot pass, it seems, much of anything 
over there. On the Sunday shows they had Republican Senators and they 
were asked on the FOX network--pretty conservative, and that is 
probably a gross understatement--would you filibuster the President's 
bill? They refused to answer. We don't make that decision. We can't 
answer that. A filibuster is over all our heads.
  That is why we have to look seriously next year at changing the rules 
around here. The bill that has passed the Senate protects 98 percent of 
families and 97 percent of small businesses. They passed a bill in the 
House, that we defeated, that extends the tax cuts for everybody. That 
was voted down over here. The President said he would veto it. So this 
happy talk--the Republican House leadership said yesterday: Let them 
take our bill. That bill was brought up and it was defeated.
  I repeat, the American people do not agree with the Republicans in 
the House and Republicans over here. The way to avoid the fiscal cliff 
has been right in the face of the Republican leaders, both McConnell 
and Boehner, for days and days, going into weeks and months, and it is 
the only option that is a viable escape route and that is the Senate-
passed bill. It would not be hard to pass. I have talked about that at 
some length. Every Democrat in the House would vote for it, a handful 
of Republicans would vote for it, and that is all that would be needed. 
But Grover Norquist is standing in the way of this--not the rich people 
but Grover Norquist, the man who says what the Republicans can do. I 
say to the Speaker: Take the escape hatch we have left you. Put the 
economic fate of the Nation ahead of your own fate as Speaker of the 
House. Millions of middle-class families are nervously watching and 
waiting and counting down the moment until their taxes go up. Nothing 
can move forward in regard to our budget crisis unless Speaker Boehner 
and Leader McConnell are willing to participate in coming up with a 
bipartisan plan.
  Speaker Boehner is unwilling to negotiate, we have not heard a word 
from Leader McConnell, and nothing is happening. Democrats cannot put 
forward a plan of their own. Without the participation of Leader 
McConnell and Speaker Boehner, nothing can happen on the fiscal cliff 
and so far they are radio silent.
  We are going to work in the next couple of days to get the most 
important legislation done on FISA. There should be a good debate. We 
have people who are interested in changing what we have on the floor. 
There have been a series of amendments on trying to change FISA--the 
espionage legislation that guides this country. It should be a good 
debate.
  We have to finish the supplemental appropriations bill that is so 
important for the people in the Northeast. We have a lot to do. There 
could be as many as 28 votes in the next few days. We are in Washington 
working while the Members of the House of Representatives are out 
watching movies, watching their kids play soccer and basketball and 
doing all kinds of things. They should be here. They should be here 
urging the Speaker: Let's bring up the $250,000 bill. Let's not have 
middle-class Americans and small businesses get hurt.
  What is the business?

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