Motion to Instruct Conferees on H.R. 3630, Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011
Floor Speech
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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 4 minutes.
It is December 20, and the Republicans are using it as a day to dissemble, pretending to support a tax cut for working Americans while making it uncertain and delayed.
We, of course, as we all know, could pass the Senate bill by 2 o'clock today, send it to the President, and provide certainty to working Americans come January 1 that their taxes will not go up.
The choice, I suggest to all of you, is not between 60 days and 1 year, because at least we all say we're for 1 year--we are for 1 year, we will support a 1-year extension--but we know the Senate has been unable to agree. So they sent us back an agreement that they could agree on to give us 60 days to get to that 1 year.
Instead, House Republicans refuse to even bring the Senate's bipartisan compromise to the floor. Eighty-nine U.S. Senators voted for a compromise, and you will not bring it to the floor. You create uncertainty and anxiety among the public.
That is shameful and disappointing.
As a result, on January 1, if there is no agreement, those of you who vote to send this to conference today and against this motion to instruct will be responsible for 160 million Americans seeing their taxes increase next year, for 2.3 million people seeking jobs who will lose their unemployment lifeline by mid-February, and for 48 million Americans having their access to doctors placed in jeopardy.
Those are the stakes.
America thought we had an agreement this weekend. John McCain thought we had an agreement this Saturday--and yes, Speaker Boehner thought we had an agreement on Saturday. America thought there was reason to hope that middle class Americans would be spared this entirely preventable tax increase.
I tell you, my friends, if this were about the upper income tax increase, it would pass like lightning in your conference--like lightning. But no. This is about putting in jeopardy a middle class tax cut, and we could play political games with that. We're now witnessing the concluding convulsion of confrontation and obstruction in this most unproductive, Tea Party-dominated, partisan session of Congress. As a result, Speaker Boehner decided he wasn't for the agreement.
Now let me tell you what Speaker Boehner said 6 months ago, because there was a lot of talk about this 1-year extension. He called proposals to extend or expand the payroll tax cut at that point by a year ``another little short-term gimmick.''
Same rhetoric. Different circumstances. But both put at risk the middle class.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Simpson). The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. HOYER. I yield myself an additional minute.
In Senate Republican Leader McConnell's own words, ``The compromise that you are rejecting today was designed to pass.''
In fact, the bill that you passed you knew was designed to fail. Because you knew it was going to fail, your Republican leadership in the Senate objected to its being considered on the floor of the United States Senate, just as you have refused to consider the Senate's compromise on this floor.
It did so in the Senate. That bill that was designed to pass, according to Senator McConnell, did so in the Senate with overwhelming support from 83 percent of Republicans and from every Democrat, including the entire Senate Republican leadership and the entire Democratic leadership.
Democrats, Mr. Speaker, are fighting to prevent a painful tax increase for the middle class. The way to do that is to pass the Senate compromise while we continue to work on a yearlong extension. That's what Senator Reid said he'll do, Mr. Speaker, and that's what we're prepared to do, Mr. Speaker. But we don't want to put at risk January 1 coming and that tax cut disappearing. If they fail to pass the compromise, House Republicans will have to answer to the American people whose taxes will go up.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has again expired.
Mr. HOYER. I yield myself an additional minute.
To the innocent unemployed and to the Medicare seniors who are seeking services from their doctors, we must not leave this work unfinished just days before the holidays and New Year. That's what the Senate did. They gave us time. They gave the American people time. We ought to be bringing relief to middle class families who are increasingly anxious about their futures during what should be a joyful and hopeful holiday season.
We ought to pass the bipartisan Senate bill. That's what this motion to instruct says. That's what the American people want to happen in Washington: to see us work together, come to agreement, act, bring certainty, stop the blame game. We can send the bipartisan agreement to the President today, and he will sign it.
Vote ``yes'' on this motion to instruct. Vote for the American workers, the Medicare recipient, and the unemployed. Vote for this motion to instruct.
Mr. Speaker, I yield the remainder of my time to my good friend from New York, Joe Crowley, a member of the Ways and Means Committee.
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