Tax On Bonuses Received From Certain TARP Receipients
Floor Speech
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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, Democratic leaders in the House say they are giddy because of CBO's latest estimate of their $1 trillion health care spending bill. That is what you call trying to get out in front of the news. Because if you look at the details, if you look under the hood, you will see this latest bill is even more painful than the Senate bill that Democrats over in the House are afraid to take a vote on.
Democratic leaders are bragging about this bill's impact on the deficit. They say it reduces the deficit by $130 billion over 10 years. The more important question is: How do they get there? They get there with even higher taxes and even deeper Medicare cuts than the first Senate bill. Let me say that again. This second bill that is coming along has even deeper Medicare cuts and even higher taxes than the first Senate bill that over in the House they don't seem to want to have a recorded vote on.
Let's start with the Medicare cuts. The Senate bill Speaker Pelosi said Democrats are so afraid to take a vote on originally cut Medicare by $465 billion. That is the original Senate-passed bill that passed on Christmas Eve. The latest bill increases those cuts by $60 billion more.
How about taxes? The Senate bill the Democrats over in the House are so afraid to take a vote on raises taxes by $494 billion--$494 billion. The second bill coming along increases taxes by at least $150 billion on top--on top--of the $494 billion original tax increase.
So if you were worried about raising taxes in the middle of a recession, this bill raises taxes even more. If you were worried about cutting Medicare for seniors, this bill cuts it even more.
So here is how Washington works. Democrats want to spend trillions of dollars on this bill in order to save $130 billion 1 week after voting to add nearly that much to the deficit in a single vote. If Democrats are giddy about this CBO score, then they must get a kick out of higher taxes and Medicare cuts because that is what this bill will mean--even higher taxes and deeper Medicare cuts than the original Senate bill.
If wavering Democrats needed any more evidence that this bill is actually worse than the Senate bill, they got it from the chairman of the Budget Committee just this afternoon. If our Democratic friends in the House were counting on the Senate to fix the original Senate bill they don't want to vote for because it is so bad, I wouldn't count on the Senate. The Budget Committee chairman over here is already warning that if that reconciliation bill comes over to the Senate, it will have to go back to the House once again for changes. So don't count on us to fix this bill for you, I would say to my Democratic friends in the House. Don't count on us.
Republicans have been saying for nearly a year now that this bill is unsalvageable. The latest CBO score proves our point.
I would suggest the President not scrap his trip to Indonesia. He should scrap this bill and start over on a bill that Americans can embrace and that lawmakers from both parties will actually be proud to vote for.
Taking a bill that House Democrats are too embarrassed to vote for, adding more than $150 billion in new taxes and slashing $60 billion more from our seniors' Medicare and keeping sweetheart deals may make some Washington Democrats giddy, but that is not reform.
I yield the floor.
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