Washington, DC – As the Senate debates whether to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for wealthy Americans, U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse today spoke in favor of a proposal to continue the tax cuts for working class families and extend unemployment benefits.
Speaking from the Senate floor, Whitehouse said, “On behalf of the 65,000 Rhode Islanders currently looking for work, I want to express my support for Chairman Baucus’s one-year extension of emergency unemployment benefits… The one-year extension of this lifeline will quite literally mean the difference between keeping a home or facing homelessness for many Rhode Island families.”
He continued, “I am also pleased that Senator Baucus’s proposal would make permanent the current tax rates for 97% of taxpayers… In addition to sparing middle-class families budgetary pain, continuing the middle-class tax cuts will inject about $200 billion into the economy over the next two years.”
The amendment failed by a vote of 53 to 36.
The full text of Whitehouse’s speech, as prepared for delivery, is below.
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Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Thank you, Mr./Madam President. The job market is still suffering the fallout of the Bush recession, and the unemployment rate is near 10%. Chairman Baucus’s proposal would inject hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy, helping struggling families make ends meet, and creating jobs in the process.
On behalf of the 65,000 Rhode Islanders currently looking for work, I want to express my support for Chairman Baucus’s one-year extension of emergency unemployment benefits. Without this extension, thousands of Rhode Islanders will soon be left with no source of income as they continue to search the want ads – no money for the mortgage or rent, no money for food, no money for medicine, no money for holiday presents for their children. The one-year extension of this lifeline will quite literally mean the difference between keeping a home or facing homelessness for many Rhode Island families.
Contrary to the criticism of some of my Republican friends, the vast majority of unemployed Rhode Islanders are out of work through no fault of their own and looking for jobs every single day. The jobs simply aren’t there.
Congress has historically extended unemployment benefits when the national unemployment rate has been above 7.2%. While we may have turned the corner on job loss, Friday’s report that the national rate is 9.8% shows that we have a long way to go before the job market returns to normal levels. The one year extension provided by this measure will give the 65,000 unemployed Rhode Islanders and over 15 million unemployed Americans the support they need to continue weathering this tempestuous economy.
In addition, this important tax package would extend some of the provisions of the Small Business Jobs Act, which we passed in September. Notably, it would continue a powerful incentive for investments in smaller companies. Under the Baucus proposal, qualified investments made in 2011 in small businesses would be eligible for a 100% capital gains tax exclusion if held for at least five years. As the credit market continues to slowly thaw, I’ve heard from numerous Rhode Island business owners that they would like to expand their operations but banks just won’t lend them the capital. This provision will encourage much-needed equity investments so that businesses in Rhode Island and around the country can expand and create jobs.
I am also pleased that Senator Baucus’s proposal would make permanent the current tax rates for 97% of taxpayers and, despite Republican claims to the contrary, deliver tax savings to 100% of taxpayers. Mr. President, I’m sure you hear from your constituents as I hear from Rhode Islanders that it’s getting more and more difficult for families to balance their budgets. Each year that tics by seems to bring higher fuel, food, and medicine costs. Budgets are stretched paper thin and it would be irresponsible of us to let taxes go up for middle-class families.
Senator Baucus’s proposal would keep tax rates where they are for individuals earning less than $200,000 per year and families earning less than $250,000 per year. Continuing these rates will spare middle-class families considerable tax increases. For example, a family of four earning $60,000 per year would save $2,500 under our plan. I can tell you, Mr. President, that for some of my constituents, that $2,500 may be the difference between paying their mortgage and facing foreclosure, or the difference between sending a child to college or out into the minimum-wage workforce.
In addition to sparing middle-class families budgetary pain, continuing the middle-class tax cuts will inject about $200 billion into the economy over the next two years. When middle-class families get additional resources, they tend to spend them, invigorating the economy and supporting local and regional jobs. From family budgets to the national economy, extending the middle-class tax cuts is a clear win-win.
This is not necessarily the case for extending tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. Under the Democratic plan, the first $250,000 of income for a wealthy family would benefit from extended low tax rates. This means between $6,000 and $7,000 in tax savings.
Republicans want to go much farther and give the average multi-millionaire a $100,000 tax bonus. Every economist knows that a middle-class family is more likely to spend an extra few thousand dollars on clothes and groceries, than a person with millions to spend, with an extra $100,000. In an age of large deficits, we need to start to make tough choices in our budget. This seems like an easy one to me: let’s keep rates where they are for the vast majority of Americans and permit the rates at the very top to go back to Clinton-era levels.
Republicans warn that if millionaires and billionaires had to pay the same tax rates they did in the 1990s that the economic recovery would suffer. Mr. President, do you remember the Clinton years as being a time of economic suffering? Of course not. The economy thrived in the 1990s under the Clinton income tax rates, far better than under the Bush tax rates, and there’s no reason to think that the recovery would suffer if we restored the Clinton-era rates for the very wealthiest.
I find it astonishing that our Republican colleagues would continue to filibuster our efforts to get a tax break to all Americans, in order to secure a bigger bonus to the top 3% of the American population, at a cost of around $700 billion to the deficit and debt. The wealthiest 1% of Americans earn about 21% of all income and own over a third of the nation’s wealth – figures at the highest levels since the roaring 1920s. Quite simply, the rich are richer than they have ever been, and Senate Republicans are holding hostage a tax benefit for Americans to demand a super-benefit for the super-wealthy.
Mr. President, I hope that our Republican colleagues will stop obstructing this important tax reduction and emergency unemployment benefits package. From funding the government to authorizing the military, we have much more work to do this year. The price to regular Americans of obstruction in the Senate is becoming too high. I thank the chair, and I yield the floor.
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