Tax Relief Act of 2005

TAX RELIEF ACT OF 2005

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, our Tax Code does two things. It raises revenue, but it also tries to encourage good behavior and discourage bad behavior. What this amendment does is reward good behavior on the part of American businesses. It is my belief that if a business does the right thing for its employees and for this country, it should have a tax benefit, and that is why we are designating patriotic employers.

Who are these employers? They are employers who maintain or increase the number of full-time workers in America relative to the number of full-time workers outside of America. They maintain their corporate headquarters in America if the company has ever been headquartered here. They pay decent wages to their employees, a livable wage of at least $7.75 an hour. They provide a retirement plan for their employees, either a defined benefit or defined contribution that matches at least 5 percent of their worker contributions for every employer. They pay at least 60 percent of workers' health care premiums, and when their workers are members of the Guard and Reserve and activated to serve overseas, they make up the difference in salary so their families can have peace of mind financially while their soldiers are off fighting.

I believe the companies who do this deserve a benefit. They deserve a reward. If you are not providing for your employees a decent wage, if you are sending all your jobs overseas, if you don't have a retirement plan, and you don't provide health insurance, why in the world should we reward that?

Let's pick those good, patriotic American companies and give them this tax credit, which is fully offset by this amendment.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I greatly respect my colleague from Iowa. The Grassley amendment is a clear explanation of why we have never done anything to expand health care. Do you know why? Because the Grassley amendment says we can have it all. We can give $20 billion in tax cuts to the wealthiest people in America and we can provide health care for children. It doesn't add up, just like this budget doesn't add up. What we have to understand is this. I give you a choice: Take away the tax breaks, half of which go to people who make over $1 million a year, take the money and insure all the children in America. That is my amendment.

Senator Grassley's amendment doesn't provide any resources or any funds to insure the children. What it says is if we give enough money to the wealthiest people in America, surely out of the charity of their hearts they will take care of the kids. We know better. There are more and more uninsured every single year.

I urge you to defeat the Grassley amendment and consider voting for the Durbin amendment.

I raise a point of order that the amendment violates the Byrd rule, section 313(b)(1)(a) of the Budget Act.

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, life and the Senate are about choices. Here are your choices with this amendment. You can give a capital gains and dividends tax cut that goes primarily to the wealthiest Americans. In fact, 75 percent of the capital gains tax cuts goes to people making over $200,000 a year; 1.5 million taxpayers will benefit from that new tax cut, people who are doing pretty well in life. Or you can take the same amount of money and provide health insurance for 9 million uninsured children in America. The cost? The same thing: $10 billion each year.

There is the choice--give tax cuts to the wealthiest people in America or provide health insurance for 9 million kids who don't have it, children of families who go to work every single day and don't have health insurance. The choice is pretty clear. A lot of people talk about moral values and family values. Maybe the choice in this amendment gets down to those questions.

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, this amendment provides a fully offset tax credit to the very best companies in America. We call them patriotic employers. They are employers who invest in creating jobs in the United States, not overseas. They are employers who pay a decent wage, at least $7.75 an hour. They are employers who provide a retirement plan, either defined benefit or defined contribution, matching at least 5 percent of workers' contributions. They are employers who pay health insurance, up to 60 percent of the workers' health care premiums. And they are employers who make up the difference when their employees, who are in the Guard and Reserve, go off to serve their country.

These are the very best employers in America. We should reward them with a 1-percent tax credit, fully offset. Stand up for the best employers in America. Support this amendment.

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