American Recovery And Reinvestment Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

American Recovery And Reinvestment Act Of 2009

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Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, as the Senate turns to the economic recovery bill I believe there is a message coming to the Senate from Oregon and every corner of our country. The message is that Americans do not want a bailout. They do not want a handout. What they want is legislation that provides a path out of these very difficult economic times.

I believe that, working together this week, Democrats and Republicans can start building that path. I want to stress that I am especially interested in working with colleagues on the other side of the aisle on this critical legislation.

I serve on the Senate Finance Committee, led by Chairman Baucus, and one of the best additions to this bill has been the relief that it provides from the crushing alternative minimum tax. This is a killer tax for middle-class folks. It is something, in my view, that we ought to get rid of permanently and I have proposed doing that as part of comprehensive tax reform. Well, as a result of the bipartisan work on this legislation in the Finance Committee, there is going to be relief from the AMT for hard-hit, middle-class families.

There has also been important bipartisan work on the legislation's approach to infrastructure financing. A member of the Senate Republican leadership, Senator Thune of South Dakota, has worked with me to craft legislation called Build America Bonds, which uses a tax credit approach to bonds to wring more value from every dollar that's made available for infrastructure. The economic recovery bill includes a tax credit bond provision that is similar to our legislation, although not quite the same, and I will continue to push to improve it.

I believe there are other ideas we are going to focus on, on the floor of the Senate, that will bring Democrats and Republicans together. A number of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have stressed the need to expand the legislation's support for homeowners and home buyers, to help make sure that people who want to stay in their homes and who are trying to buy a home can get additional relief. I am very pleased that colleagues on both sides of the aisle have come together to work on these kinds of ideas.

For this week, I think there are several key principles that we ought to focus on. One that I feel especially strongly about is rewarding success. Instead of subsidizing failure, this legislation takes an approach that, in fact, rewards success.

A prime example is the extension, for 3 years, of the renewable energy production tax credit. To get this tax credit, energy companies actually have to produce energy. As a result, American taxpayers will get something back for their hard-earned money. That is the kind of accountability that I think
the American people have a right to expect.

I think the legislation rewards enterprise, and I am very pleased about the bill's provision to provide enhanced writeoffs under section 179 for small businesses that invest in plants and equipment.

Ultimately, what it comes down to is providing relief for middle-class folks so they can get assistance during these difficult times.

For example, there has been discussion of the bill's supports for health information technology. One big reason that middle-class folks cannot get ahead is that their medical costs gobble up their paychecks and one of the reasons that medical costs have skyrocketed is that there are so many errors in the health care system--errors and inefficiencies, such as duplicative tests. It seems to me that by investing in health information technology, you make a downpayment on a long-term strategy for holding down medical costs and that is extraordinarily important to middle-class folks. So we will be talking about this issue more.

I note the presence of the distinguished chairman of the Appropriations Committee. One of the reasons I am confident we can approach this issue in a bipartisan way is because that is how the chairman of the Appropriations Committee has always worked. That has also been the case with Senator Cochran, Chairman Baucus, and Senator Grassley.

We are open to the best possible ideas. That is why President Obama, to his credit, has been reaching out. As far as I can tell, he has that phone practically attached to his ear talking to colleagues and saying: Bring us your best ideas. We have tried in the Senate Finance Committee, as Chairman Inouye has done in the Appropriations Committee, to start incorporating good ideas, whether they come from the Republican side of the aisle or the Democratic side.

I think we can improve this bill even more. But because it rewards success, because it rewards enterprise, because there are already good ideas that both parties support, I would urge colleagues to use this week, working with our chairs and with the Obama administration, to come together--because my view is, as I articulated, that the public does want a path out of these terrible economic times. We have a chance to make it clear that this is not a bailout, that it is not a handout, but rather the start of a path out of this tough economic period.

I hope our colleagues will use this week, under the leadership of the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Chairman Baucus of the Finance Committee, and the ranking minority members, to make sure that by the end of this week we have shown the American people that this important legislation on recovery and investment is moving forward--to deal with the critical needs of those we represent at home.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

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