Middle Class Tax Cut Act--Motion to Proceed--Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, today I wish to talk about a bill that will reduce taxes for 97 percent of all small business owners. I wish to talk about a bill that will keep $2,200 in the pockets of the middle class next year. I wish to talk about a bill that will extend tax cuts for those making less than $250,000 per year. I wish to talk about the Middle Class Tax Cut Act and why it should pass with overwhelming and bipartisan support.

My colleagues across the aisle have said they want to get our country back on its feet. Well, I know our prosperity has always stemmed from and been measured by the success of the middle class. They are the ones who get in early and stay late. They take on a second job to make it just a little bit easier to pay for college. They wait to retire to save more to help their children and grandchildren. Under no circumstances should middle-class people be worried about their taxes going up, particularly at a time when median income, middle-class income is declining in America.

To raise taxes at a time when the middle class is struggling makes no sense whatsoever. Under no circumstances--no circumstances--should the middle class have to worry about their taxes going up.

So we are proposing a 1-year extension of the Bush-era tax cuts on all Americans on the first $250,000 of income they make. Let it be known that tax break will go to everybody. A person could be making $10 million and they will get the same tax break on the first $250,000 as someone making $200,000 or $220,000 or someone making $80,000. So it does not discriminate.

By the way, we are lucky in America that we have people who have made a whole lot of money by starting businesses and employing people. We revel in the fact that America does that, and we admire well-to-do people. The difference is we don't think they need a tax break when that money could go to deficit reduction instead. Well, we can't say that for the middle class because the middle class, obviously, has less money and is struggling. So that is why we choose $250,000 as the line.

In addition, there were three more very important tax cuts signed into law by President Obama that working families across America rely on. They are the American opportunity tax credit, the expanded child tax credit, and the earned-income tax credit. Our proposal would extend these tax cuts as well. So under our plan the middle class will be secure in the knowledge that their taxes aren't going to go up over the next 5 months while we all debate the fiscal cliff and all the things we have to do to prevent our deficit from growing. This should be priority No. 1--to secure the middle class while we have this debate.

I wish to focus for a moment on a glaring difference between our plan and the Republican plan. We all know how hard it is to pay for college. We all know how important a college degree is. Study after study after study has shown if a person gets a college degree, they will make more income and a person will have a better life. Some of the recent studies show people even live longer. Having a college degree is so important to American families. Yet, at the same time, the cost of college is rising. Whether a person goes to a private school, a religious school, or a public university, the cost is going up and up and up. So it has been a passion of mine since I have come to the Senate, and even before, that we give middle-class people a tax break to go to college.

We help the poor already with Pell grants and things such as that. That is a very good thing, and I am proud we do it. But a person or a family can be making $50,000, $70,000, $90,000, $110,000, and if a kid is going to college and it costs $10,000 or $20,000 or $30,000 or $40,000 a year, they can't afford it. As a result, we have millions of parents stretching and stretching and stretching to help their kids, and millions more students are taking on huge debt loads because they know college is so important. It is vital for us to help them.

When a young man or a young woman who deserves to go to college doesn't because they can't afford it, they lose, their family loses, and our country loses as well. When a young person goes to the college they shouldn't go to because they can't afford the college they deserve to go to and want to go to, they lose, their family loses, and America loses. So it has been a passion of mine that we give the middle class--not just the poor but the middle class as well--help in paying for college because it is so expensive but it is also so important.

So we have a law now called the American opportunity tax credit. It is legislation I wrote. It helped 9.1 million families get a tax break on their children's college tuition last year. Because of the American opportunity tax credit, more parents and students now qualify for tax relief to pay for college expenses not just for 2 years but for a whole 4 years of study. It gives a $2,500 tax credit right off a family's taxes to families whose income is up to $180,000 a year. So it goes well into the middle class and even a little higher in many States. But it is needed. It is vital.

If this tax credit expires, families who rejoiced--I have talked to them across my State of New York in every corner of the State. Moms and dads are sitting around the kitchen tables Friday night after dinner, the kids are out, saying: How are we going to pay for college for Mary or Jane or Tom or Bill? They have sleepless nights about it. So why, why would our colleagues on the other side of the aisle let this tax break expire? Why does their proposal, which continues tax breaks for the wealthiest of Americans, kick these tax incentives to the curb? To let this tax break expire is a dagger to the heart of the middle class, and that is just what our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are doing.

It is more than clear Republicans are going to hold up the middle-class tax cuts, including this needed and significant help to pay for college, to insist that we provide those at the highest income levels--people who make over $250,000 a year--with a tax cut at the same time. They are holding the middle-class tax cuts hostage.

Now, I will be the first to congratulate people who are very wealthy, as I
mentioned. They have been successful. They are living the American dream. God bless them. They create jobs. They do. But today's debate is not about them or their taxes. We can have a rigorous debate about whether they deserve another tax break or whether that money should go to deficit reduction or maybe for education or infrastructure or scientific research. That is a debate for another day, and I look forward to it.

Today's debate is about the middle class. Letting these tax cuts expire would generate serious problems for our middle-class families and businesses.

It could prevent them from being able to pay for their kids' education or buy a new house or a new car. It could mean they put off retirement a little bit longer or cancel a vacation. That would have repercussions across the entire economy. So extending the tax cuts for the middle class is a no-brainer and the American people are on our side.

I hope, I pray, I beseech our friends on the other side of the aisle to listen to the middle class, saying: Look, you guys fight over what you should do for the highest income people but come together on helping us.

That is what we can do. If our colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to get this country back on track, they will join us in supporting this critical legislation, including the tax credit to help pay for college education, to help the families and businesses that are the real job creators and prosperity makers.

With that, Mr. President, I yield the remainder of my time.

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