Disclose Act of 2012--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, earlier today our colleague from Washington State indicated that President Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress are willing to accept the largest tax increase in American history and a series of crippling defense cuts unless Republicans will agree to raise taxes significantly falling on the very people we are counting on to get our economy going again and to create jobs. I wish to say just a few words in response.

First of all, Senators on both sides of the aisle understand that a massive tax
increase could well push our economy back into a recession. Senators on both sides of the aisle understand that it would suffocate our investments that are so important to business creation and job growth. Senators on both sides of the aisle understand that middle-class families are already struggling with high unemployment and wage stagnation. And Senators on both sides of the aisle understand that we are living through the weakest economic recovery since the Great Depression. Yet President Obama and his party seem obsessed with raising taxes on the very people who are responsible for most of that new job creation.

Led by the President, these same people are demonizing business owners and demanding that they be punished, while simultaneously demanding that these same people create jobs. It is no wonder that so many Americans are concerned about the future of the U.S. economy. In the meantime, Democratic leaders such as our colleague from Washington State are apparently ready to stand by and allow truly Draconian across-the-board defense cuts even though the President's own Secretary of Defense has said these cuts would hollow out our military and be catastrophic to our national security. It simply amazes and discourages me that some people are willing to play chicken with our economy and our national security in such a cavalier, calculated sort of way.

Given that our country has endured 41 straight months of unemployment above 8 percent and given how devastating these defense cuts would be to our military, I would like to ask our President and my Democratic colleagues a few simple questions. Are you really willing to allow the largest tax increase in American history? Are you really willing to risk the U.S. economy heading backwards into a recession by the combination of these huge tax increases and the $1.2 trillion budget sequestration scheduled for January 2? Are you really willing to tell middle-class families that their needs are less important than the political needs of your party? When it comes to the defense cuts that are part of the sequestration scheduled to go into effect in January of 2013, are you really willing to do what Secretary Panetta said would happen, which is hollowing out the U.S. military? Are you really willing to let Washington gamesmanship compromise our Nation's security? Are you really willing to tell the heroes of Iraq and Afghanistan and our veterans that their needs are less important than the political needs of your party? In short, are you really willing to put election-year politics ahead of the Nation's interests?

I can only hope that this is a temporary aberration and that the answer is really no and that cooler heads will ultimately prevail when the price of inaction becomes even more apparent, but I can't say I am at all confident.

When I hear President Obama tell the American people that the private sector is doing just fine or tell business owners that the government is responsible for their success, I realize the President simply doesn't understand the challenges facing America's entrepreneurs and job creators or the risks they take every day to create jobs. In short, I wonder whether the President really understands and appreciates the free enterprise system. It is clear he doesn't understand the damaging economic effects of misguided government policies, such as ObamaCare. A small businessman named Grady Payne recently told Congress that his 31-year-old lumber company, Conner Industries, based in Fort Worth, TX, could be ``legislated out of existence'' if the President's health care law is allowed to stand.

Whenever I head home to Texas and speak to business owners such as Mr. Payne, I hear the same complaints. People are worried that the primary engine of American job creation is being held back by regulatory overreach, a woefully inefficient and unfair Tax Code, and widespread uncertainty about the future of government policies. These are not Republican concerns or Democratic concerns, these are concerns that affect every man, woman, and child in this country but especially those who own a business, those who want to start a business, and those who are looking for a job. We all know these problems are going to have to be addressed sooner or later. My preference is that we address them sooner and not later if America is going to remain competitive in the global economy and reduce the painfully high unemployment rate. After all, these were the problems we were sent here to solve.

I hear time and time again: Well, an election is coming up. This is an election year. We can't do it in an election year.

But we have had an election every 2 years since 1788. It would be a gross dereliction of our duty if Congress and the President were to give up on making important decisions in the last 6 months before the next election. Just imagine what the American people must think. I take that back; I know what they think because they are constantly telling me how frustrated they are with Congress and Washington, how dysfunctional it is, how they do not believe their political leaders are listening to them or hearing them when they say they need help to allow this great engine of job creation off the mat and to allow it to get back to work and to allow them to get back to work as well. But it is not going to happen when the President and his party are willing to play chicken with a recession.

My constituents, similar to all our constituents, all 320 million or so Americans, have to make important decisions about their families every day, every week, and every month of the year. Why would it be that Congress and the President could have an extended vacation from making those same kinds of hard choices? It does not make any sense. Beyond that, it is an abdication of our responsibility.

Nobody has said leadership is easy. But right now, on issues of extraordinary importance to our economy and our national security, leadership is what the American people need and leadership is what they deserve, but so far that leadership is AWOL. But hope remains that cooler heads will prevail and that Congress and the President, working together, will do our job to help put America back to work, to remove the uncertainties in the political process.

When my colleague from Washington makes rash statements, threatening our country with a recession unless this side of the aisle agrees to tax increases that would fall disproportionately on the job creators in this country, that is not the kind of cool deliberation or common sense coming together we need when it comes to solving our Nation's biggest economic problems.

I yield the floor.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source