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Whitehouse Urges Extension of Unemployment Benefits and Middle Class Tax Cuts

Press Release

Date: Dec. 4, 2010
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Unemployed and Low-Income

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.


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