The American Jobs Act

Floor Speech

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, this afternoon, the Republican leader of the Senate came to the floor to talk about a vote we will have later this afternoon. It is a vote which is historically important. We all know the state of our economy. We are in a position now with 14 million Americans out of work, 9.1 percent unemployment and private-sector jobs going up so slowly, it isn't getting us back into the kind of economic progress we need. We listen monthly as the unemployment statistics come out, and we are reminded of the weakness of our economy. We have to do something. The choices are to allow this economy to languish or decline or to step up and do something.

President Obama has decided he needs to lead on this issue and bring together Democrats and Republicans for that purpose. He spoke to a joint session of Congress which we all attended. It was widely reported. He said: I am going to put my best ideas on the table, and I invite the Republicans to do the same. We cannot stand idly by and do nothing.

So the President put his proposal forward. It was clear what he wanted to do, and he reminded the Republicans that many of the things he proposed were actually ideas they had proposed in the past. Then we waited and we waited. At the end of the day, I am afraid when this vote is taken, we will find few, if any, Republican Senators will support any effort to try to create jobs in the United States, as President Obama has proposed.

The President has made his position clear. Those of us who will vote in support of the President's plan have made our positions clear. But the position on the other side of the aisle is becoming increasingly clear as well, and it comes down to two things: First, the Republicans will not countenance, approve or even consider $1 more in taxes for the wealthiest people in America. For them, that is unacceptable. It is better to do nothing than to impose $1 more in taxes on people making over $1 million a year. They have said that consistently, at every level of the Republican Party.

That position doesn't reflect the feeling of Republicans in America, with 59 percent of them believing the President is right. It is not unfair to ask those who are making over $1 million a year to share the burden and sacrifice of moving the economy forward. Independents feel strongly about it, and obviously Democrats do as well. The only Republicans who don't share that belief happen to serve in the Senate, and they believe $1 more in taxes to pay for the President's jobs programs--if it came from the accounts of people making over $1 million a year--is unfair. So we know they are clear on that position.

But there is a second position the Republicans have taken that is equally clear. They are prepared to oppose any ideas coming from the Obama administration, even ideas they have conceived and voted for in the past. I asked my staff to take a look at some of the proposals of President Obama in his jobs bill, which will come up later this afternoon, to see what the record on the Republican side has been, and it is interesting.

Senator McConnell and 32 of his Republican colleagues supported President Bush's Economic Stimulus Act of 2008. It included tax rebates for individuals, which we find in the Obama plan; tax cuts for small business, which we find in the Obama plan--and no offset, incidentally. It wasn't paid for. It added directly to the deficit. Senator McConnell and 32 of his Republican colleagues voted for that because it had President Bush's name associated with it. I am afraid most, if not all of them, will vote against this proposal because President Obama has brought it forward.

Republicans have supported a payroll tax consistently in the past. Here is what Senator McConnell said on FOX News in January of 2009:

If you want a quick answer to the question of what would I do, I'd have a payroll tax holiday for a year or two that would put taxes in the hands of everybody who has a job, whether they pay income taxes or not. And, of course, businesses pay the payroll tax too, so it would be both a business tax cut and individual tax cut immediately.

That is the centerpiece of President Obama's jobs plan. It is a plan that was criticized on the floor this morning by Senator McConnell. The approach the President is taking is exactly what Senator McConnell said when he was speaking in the bosom of the lodge at FOX News in January of 2009. Republicans have supported Federal help to States. I will not go through the list, but they have in the past.

Incidentally, it used to be dogmatic when it came to building infrastructure in America--roads and highways and bridges and ports and airports. It was a bipartisan issue. When the President puts it in his jobs bill, it is rejected. You know what the Republicans say about the President's jobs bill? We have tried all this before and it didn't work, so let's not try it again. So they are summarily rejecting payroll tax cuts they have supported in the past for families, they are rejecting tax cuts for businesses to hire

the unemployed--even unemployed veterans, which they have supported in the past; they are rejecting the notion we need to build America's infrastructure for the future of our economy; and they have basically said, when it comes to trying to make this economy move forward, the only thing they want to do is to pass a trade agreement.

We will consider three of those trade agreements tomorrow. At least two, maybe all of them, are likely to pass. How quickly do the Republicans think there will be a turnaround in the economy if we start increasing our trade with Korea, Colombia or Panama? It may increase trade but certainly not in the near term and certainly not to the
benefit of 14 million Americans who are currently unemployed.

It comes down to this. We are going to have a vote later this afternoon. It is going to be a vote on President Obama's jobs proposal. He has spoken to it clearly in a joint session of Congress. He has taken his case to the American people. He has included provisions which the Republicans have historically supported but that I am afraid they are going to walk away from on this. The Republican approach to this is to do nothing--absolutely nothing. Protect millionaires from tax increases and don't give President Obama a victory.

I will say this. This is not about a victory for President Obama. It is a victory for unemployed people across America that we would do something specific, something direct, and something that would have a measurable impact in creating jobs. I am troubled the Republican approach, as Senator McConnell described it, is one of ``just say no.''

That is the Republican answer to the weakness of our economy. He talks about the tax hike that is included in our bill. That tax hike is a surtax--on those making over $1 million in income--of 5.6 percent. It is not too much a sacrifice to ask from those who are most well off in America.

When the Senator from Kentucky comes and tells us the earlier stimulus bill failed, I would say to him: Remember, over 40 percent of that bill consisted of tax cuts, something most Republicans usually support. It also invested in America in ways that will pay off for years to come. For example, the stimulus bill paid for and built a new terminal at the Peoria National Airport--a terminal that created jobs today and will serve that community for decades to come. That stimulus bill also led to the creation of an intermodal center in Bloomington, in downstate Illinois, a proposal that will create jobs now for construction and build for transportation in that community for decades to come.

So for that stimulus to be dismissed as not creating results, I am afraid Senator McConnell needs to journey a little north of Kentucky, and we will show him results in Illinois and all across the United States.

I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of quorum.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source