Imposing a Minimum Effective Tax Rate for High-Income Taxpayers

Floor Speech

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SURFACE TRANSPORTATION ACT

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I rise today in support of the legislation authored by my good friend from New Jersey, Senator Menendez. But before I do, I want to call attention to the highway bill and its holdup by our colleagues in the House.

Once again, we are facing the specter of an unnecessary shutdown caused by intransigence in the House Republican caucus, and time is ticking away. Should we reach the March 31 deadline without passing a bill, States' contract authority for construction projects will cease, and 2.9 million jobs will be put at grave risk.

It doesn't have to be this way. Speaker Boehner has once again been painted into a corner by the extreme wing of his caucus, which is committed to blocking a responsible highway bill at every turn. It has become clear Speaker Boehner has run out of options. He has tried to pass a highly partisan House-drafted highway bill, and that failed. He has tried to pass a 90-day extension on Monday, and that failed. He then tried to pass a 60-day extension on Tuesday, and that failed as well. Now we have learned the House will not vote on any type of extension today either.

Time is running out. Speaker Boehner simply cannot pass a transportation bill of any length without Democratic votes, and it is time he accepts that.

Fortunately, Mr. President, there is an easy way out that already has a stamp of approval from some of the most conservative Republicans in Congress. The House could pass the Senate bill. If Speaker Boehner put the Senate bill on the floor, there is virtually no question it would pass by a large majority.

You know, this is beginning to look a bit like a replay of the payroll tax cut episode. Just like then, the Senate passed a bipartisan bill by an overwhelming majority. Just like then, the Speaker originally said he would act based on the Senate compromise, but then went back on what he said. Just like then, with the deadline looming, the Speaker is unable to pass an alternative measure and is resorting to asking the Senate for a conference.

We all know how the payroll tax cut saga ended. Republicans started turning on the Speaker and asking him to pass the Senate bill. Now that is happening here too. Earlier this week, three House Republicans from mainstream Republican districts--Congress Members Dold, Biggert, and Bass--joined the growing calls for Speaker Boehner to put the Senate's 2-year highway bill on the floor. These are major cracks in the dam, and we believe it is the start of a trend.

Earlier today my friend from New York, Pete King, also said he would support the Senate bill if the Speaker put it to a vote. Now, that doesn't come as a surprise, as Congressman King is a strong fighter of New York's transportation needs, including mass transit, which are protected in the Senate bill.

The Senate bill is about two dozen publicly declared Republicans away from having the votes to pass. We believe we have those two dozen Republicans in the House and more. They may not be publicly declared, but they are there. The Senate's 2-year bill can be a lifeboat for Speaker Boehner. He should take it before it is too late.

As we speak about the highway bill over in the House, in the Senate Democrats are hard at work taking on Senator Menendez's fine legislation. He was prescient to focus on this idea years ago, and I am glad this bill has come to the floor. I look forward to a debate on the issue.

In the last election, voters gave those of us who have the privilege of serving in this Chamber two distinct mandates. They told us to do two things at once: First, and perhaps foremost, make the economy grow. Create good-paying jobs. Make sure the American dream burns brightly--the dream that says to the average middle-class family: The odds are pretty good if you work hard you will be doing better 10 years from now than you are doing today, and the odds are very good your kids will do better than you.

For that dream, which has burned so brightly in this country for hundreds of years, the candle began to flicker a little in this decade. Median income actually went down even before the recession, which meant even if people had a job--and we know there are millions out of work despite the fact they look hard for jobs--their income was declining. Buying power was declining for the average person. That is difficult. Even people who do have work have a difficult time when they sit down at that dinner table Friday night after dinner trying to figure out how they are going to pay the bills. The costs and needs keep going up, and even when they have a job the income doesn't seem to keep up.

So we first think of the people we have met who are struggling because they don't have jobs, and then we look at the people lucky enough to have jobs who are still having a difficult time making ends meet. We know this Congress must focus like a laser on jobs, the economy, and the middle class. So this is one obligation voters sent to us, and it is a justified one. Secondly, they said, in no uncertain terms, to rein in that Federal deficit--rein it in. They are right.

So that brings us to today, where we are fighting to grow the economy through projects such as those in the highway bill, which will bring good-paying jobs to communities across the country, and we try to rein in this out-of-control deficit by passing the Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act. It would be hard enough to accomplish one of these goals, but we are trying to do both.

We can do it because this choice is simple. It is obvious that at this time, when there are so many needs, that giving oil companies the kind of tax breaks we do makes no sense at all. Getting rid of these corporate subsidies to Big Oil is a no-brainer. At the time these subsidies were passed decades ago, oil was $17 a barrel and there was a worry there wouldn't be enough production. Maybe it made sense in those days to give oil companies an incentive to explore and produce. But with oil hovering at $100 a barrel, and Big Oil reaping record profits, this outdated subsidy makes no sense. Yet it remains on the books, amazingly enough.

It defies logic for this government to spend billions of dollars in tax giveaways to Big Oil; for taxpayers to give dollars out of their pockets every year when they are struggling and Big Oil is making record profits. Believe me, the free market gives the oil companies enough of an incentive to produce. When oil is $100 a barrel, they do not need an extra subsidy from the government to produce. They are going to produce every bit

of oil they can. They make huge profits, so they do not need a financial nudge from Washington. At the same time, middle-class Americans get hit with a double whammy. They are paying $70 or more to fill up their gas tanks and then some of their hard-earned dollars are being used to line Big Oil's pockets.

Economists estimate the typical family will pay almost $1,000 more on gasoline this year than last year. But families in my home State of New York and across the country are still struggling to make ends meet. As the economy slowly recovers, they cannot afford to get gouged at the pump.

With billions of dollars worth of tax subsidies, and gas prices at near record highs, it is no wonder the top five oil companies are on track for another record-breaking year. These companies are not only the most profitable businesses in the United States, they are among the most profitable in the world. In the past decade, they took home $1 trillion--not $1 billion, $1 trillion--in profits.

Now, there is nothing wrong with profits in and of themselves. In America, we celebrate success. We want the private sector to survive and thrive. But at a time when the government is looking to tighten its belt, and we are grappling with painful cuts because we have the dual goal of growing the middle class and also reducing the deficit, it boggles the mind that we would continue to subsidize such a lavish industry.

I have watched my colleagues on the other side of the aisle stand idly by while the type of funding that helps our middle class is threatened. Now they are going to choose these subsidies to Big Oil over money to help kids pay for college, over cancer research, over helping our veterans, over keeping our highways and transit systems reliable. Hardly any American would agree with that. Hardly any American--Democrat, Republican, Liberal, Moderate, Conservative--from the Northeast, South, or West would agree.

Try to wrap your head around that. Big Oil is reporting record profits, gas prices are at an all-time high, and we, the American taxpayers, are still subsidizing the oil industry. We don't need the imagination of Lewis Carroll to come up with a more ridiculous scenario. That is why I strongly support and am proud to cosponsor Senator Menendez's Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act.

If our Republican colleagues are serious about deficit reduction, the Menendez bill is the chance to show it. There is no good reason not to support this sensible legislation.

In fact, Speaker Boehner himself has said as much. Let's not forget, he was in favor of repealing oil subsidies before he was against it.

So the bottom line is this: At a time of sky-high oil prices, it is unfathomable to continue to pad the profits of oil companies with taxpayer-funded subsidies. The time to repeal these giveaways is now.

Mr. President, I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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