Providing for Consideration of Senate Amendment to House Amendment to Senate Amendment to H.R. 4853, Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GARAMENDI. Madam Chairperson, thank you so very, very much for your leadership and for the change in the rule.

Mr. Speaker, the earlier rule presented a significant problem to us in that it had basically a vote on the Pomeroy amendment; and that would be then, if that passed, the vote on the bill without a separate vote. Separation is very, very important to many of us because we see in this particular piece of legislation numerous serious problems.

For example, we see that the Social Security payroll tax is being reduced, which, for the first time ever in history, I think, has put Social Security's security in play. In the future, we think this may be a very, very serious detriment to the well-being of the Social Security system.

In addition to that, the way in which the taxes are structured, I think, goes basically against some very fundamental principles that were best announced and laid out by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Etched on the marble at his memorial here in Washington, D.C., are the words that speak, I believe, very directly to this piece of legislation. He said that the test of our progress is not whether those who have much get more but, rather, whether those who have little get enough.

This piece of legislation that we will be voting on, even with the proposed amendment, the Pomeroy amendment, really does give those who have much even more while those who have little get very, very little.

We strongly support the middle class tax cut. That has always been our position. We think President Obama was quite correct in announcing his support for the middle class tax cut. We think that the Republican position of even greater wealth and lower taxes for those who have much--not just a little much but a great, great deal of the wealth of America--is not justified. Therefore, we stand in support of the proposed rule, and we will speak later on the bill.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source