Small Business Jobs and Tax Relief Act--Motion to Proceed
Floor Speech
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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, it has been 3 years--3 years--since my colleague from Kentucky who just spoke announced to America that his highest priority as a Senate leader was to make sure Barack Obama was a one-term President. That was his highest priority. And since that time, we have seen a record number of Republican filibusters on the floor of the Senate. They have broken all records in terms of efforts to stop even to allow a vote on the priorities of the Obama administration. For the Republican leader to then come to the floor and bemoan the fact that the President has not done more suggests he believes we are victims of political amnesia. And we are not.
We know the President came with a stimulus bill when we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. That is what we were losing the month the President was sworn in. He came with a stimulus bill to turn the economy around and to give tax breaks to businesses and individuals. And we ended up getting three Republicans who joined us over the objection of their leadership. We needed those three to break the Republican filibuster on the President's effort to get the economy moving forward again.
When it came time for health care reform, Senator Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, invited the Republicans to sit down and construct a bipartisan bill with us, and they walked away--they walked away and then started a Republican filibuster against any change in health care reform. Does anyone remember the Republican alternative for health care reform? Of course not because there wasn't any. They didn't have a bill. They didn't even have a good idea. They were just here to say no and to use their filibuster to achieve it, and that story has repeated itself over and over again.
In trying to rein in Wall Street greed so we didn't go through another recession like the one we are living through now, not enough Republicans would step up and support that. We faced a Republican filibuster again.
So for the Republican leader to come to the floor and bemoan the fact that certain things have not occurred here is to ignore the reality that he said his highest priority was to make Barack Obama a one-term President, and he has demonstrated that with an endless stream of Republican filibusters.
TAX CUTS
Now, let's get down to tax cuts. What President Obama said yesterday was this: To every single American, your first $250,000 of income--your first $250,000--will continue to receive a good tax break. There will be no increase in taxes on the first $250,000 of income. For 98 percent of Americans, that is great because they make less than $250,000, so they are not going to see any tax increase by the President's proposal. But for the 2 percent who make more than $250,000, the President's suggestion was to go back to the tax rates, for that money earned over $250,000, go back to the tax rates of the Clinton years, which was a time of dramatic economic expansion and the last time we in Washington balanced a budget. Now, that is not a radical idea, it is a sensible idea.
You can't come to the floor of the Senate day after day, week after week posing for holy pictures about dealing with the deficit--my goodness, the deficit--and then when we suggest raising taxes on only 2 percent of the American people, say: Oh, that is unacceptable. The only way to reach fiscal stability and deal with the deficit and debt is to put it all on the table, to make sure spending and revenue are on the table. And if we can't touch income over $250,000 for the top 2 percent of Americans, we will never honestly deal with the deficit crisis.
The Republican leader came to the floor and said: Well, last week's employment numbers were not that encouraging. And I would join him in saying I wish they were better too. I am not going to say this is where I want to be, but I will say this: For 28 straight months--28 straight months--under President Obama, we have seen increases in private sector employment. Jobs are being lost in the public sector. We know that. They are being lost back home as State and local governments and others are reducing their payrolls. That is part of it. It is one of the reasons we haven't seen a more fulsome growth in employment. That is a reality. But private sector job growth has continued for 28 straight months.
So for the Republican leader to suggest that the President took this news and then went out on the campaign trail, he forgot something. Last Friday President Barack Obama signed the bipartisan Transportation bill--a bill that will create and keep more than 2 million Americans working in this country building the infrastructure we need. This is a bill we have been waiting on for 3 years, and the President signed it, and I am glad he did. It helps Illinois, and it helps the Nation.
SMALL BUSINESS JOBS AND TAX RELIEF ACT
Let me also say that we can do more things to help get this economy moving forward. The first thing I would like to see is for the Republicans to end their filibuster against the small business bill we will have before us today. What does this bill do? This bill says to small businesses across America: We will give you a tax credit if you will create jobs or if you will expand your payroll--a tax credit--and we will give you a quicker depreciation on those items of equipment--technology and capital--that you purchase now.
This would be a shot in the arm. It is a recipe every Republican has sworn to Grover Norquist they are going to stand by come hell or high water--to cut taxes, cut taxes on small businesses so they will create jobs, give them a break to buy equipment so they can depreciate it more quickly and create more jobs with those who are supplying them. What is wrong with this notion? It is supposed to be the Republican credo: cut taxes, and for small business. Can't we agree on that? No. We are facing a Republican filibuster on that too.
Well, it is an illustration, in my mind, of an example of a bill that can move us forward with 1 million new jobs. Why won't the Republicans join us? Well, because they have said over and over again that they want this President to be a one-term President. They do not want success. They don't want job creation on his watch. They want as miserable a record as they can help produce to take into the November elections.
In fact, one Republican Senator said 2 weeks ago in the press: I hope the defense contractors start laying people off with the prospect of spending cuts in the future, and the sooner the better. Don't wait until after the elections; do it now.
How can he say that when we have to face these workers and their families? We don't want anyone laid off; we want people to have an opportunity to work good-paying jobs.
I think we understand what we face today. We have to come together as a nation with solutions that aren't part of the Presidential campaign rhetoric.
I served on the Simpson-Bowles Commission. I think it was a responsible way forward. I didn't agree with all of it, but it was a responsible way to move forward on deficit reduction. But we also put everything on the table in terms of deficit reduction. We conceded the fact that we can't start the cutting that is needed until we bring ourselves strongly out of this recession, and we are moving forward on that path. It is time for us to continue that movement forward on a bipartisan basis.
I am asking for somebody to throw open the windows and bring in some fresh air here in the Senate this afternoon. When we vote on the small business tax credits to create more jobs across America, I am asking the Republicans to join us. This is not about President Obama, this is about America, its workers, its families, and our economy. If there was ever a time when we should come together on a bipartisan basis, it is now. We need to knock down the Republican filibuster, bring this bill to the floor, and do our very best to create new jobs and move this country forward.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
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