Cybersecurity Act--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I appreciate the courtesy of my colleague from Maryland, and I promise I am going to be just no more than 10 minutes.

TAX HIKES AND SMALL BUSINESS

Two years ago, Members of both parties in this Chamber recognized that America's economic recovery was fragile, too fragile to absorb a tax increase. Since then, obviously, my colleagues across the aisle have changed their minds and experienced a change of heart.

Yesterday the Senate voted to raise taxes. I have been amused by some of the headlines I have read that say the Senate voted to cut taxes, which is false. The Senate did not vote to cut taxes; the Senate voted to maintain the tax rates that have been in existence for 12 years for a certain class of taxpayers, while raising taxes on everyone else.

I cannot explain the logic behind this vote. I can only assume it is some election-year calculus designed to galvanize the political base of our friends across the aisle. It most definitely is not good economics, and it is not good for job creation.

For 3 years, it is no secret America has been living through the weakest economic recovery since the Great Depression. We know from history, from economics, and from common sense that the last thing you want to do amid persistently slow economic growth is to dramatically raise taxes on income and investment. If you want more economic activity, if you want growth, then you do not burden it further. You relieve those burdens, which allows it to flourish and grow, which creates prosperity and jobs. Yet our friends across the aisle just voted to raise taxes on nearly 1 million American businesses.

Many American businesses do not operate as a corporation. They operate as a sole proprietorship, a partnership--in other words, a mom-and-pop operation--or even as a subchapter S or some other legal entity, which causes business income to be paid on individual tax returns not on a separate corporate tax return.

The bottom line is, when we raise taxes on people in the top tax brackets, we inevitably are going to capture, in this instance, 1 million different individuals paying business income on an individual tax return, which is bad for the economy, bad for jobs.

We should make no mistake about it: Given our anemic growth rates, given the ongoing debt crisis in Europe, and given the economic slowdown in China and other emerging market countries, raising taxes on so many job creators could easily tip the U.S. economy back into recession. If we take yesterday's vote to increase taxes on so many small businesses together with the unwillingness to deal with the single largest tax increase in American history--which will occur on December 31, 2012, and is something that has been called taxmageddon, when virtually all the tax provisions in the code will expire, the ones passed 12 years ago--if we combine that huge tax increase with the sequestration, $1.2 trillion, which comes disproportionately out of defense spending, without exception the economists I have talked to say we will be in a recession.

Why is it that our colleagues across the aisle are willing to risk putting America back into recession just to raise taxes? I cannot understand that, unless they have taken some kind of poll, done some sort of focus group that has laid out some strategy which is not readily apparent to most people.

So the idea that this tax increase would solve our fiscal problem is laughable. As my good friend, the Republican leader, said yesterday, the additional revenue generated by the taxes that our Democratic friends voted for yesterday ``[wouldn't] even fund the government for a week.'' A week--and that is before we consider the harmful impact on the economy and jobs.

Whenever I talk to business owners back home in Texas, they express utter bewilderment as to why Members of Congress would want to raise taxes during the current economic environment. Don't our friends across the aisle realize how many small businesses are struggling to stay afloat? Don't they realize that our Byzantine Tax Code and misguided regulations are already strangling job creation? Don't they realize our national unemployment rate has been stuck at more than 8 percent for 41 consecutive months?

No one here wants to see another recession, but apparently some are willing to risk a recession by putting ideology ahead of sound economic policy. After last night's vote, I thought of all the Texas entrepreneurs--more than 400 of them--who have contacted my office, sending their personal, inspiring American success stories. These stories remind us that the American dream is still alive, and it is inextricably intertwined with our free enterprise system. It is not a gift from government. It is what people earn as a result of hard work and the opportunities given to them in this great country.

These stories remind us the American dream is not dependent upon government assistance. It is not about taxing certain people to pay for ideologically driven government projects like Solyndra. It is about offering all Americans the opportunity to earn their success and achieve their dreams.

My office has received literally hundreds of entrepreneurial success stories from Texas, stories such as that of Gary Murray, a Vietnam veteran who came home from the war after three tours as a marine in Vietnam, who spent two decades working at IBM and then launched his own fencing club--a fencing club. For more than a quarter century, Gary's Round Rock Fencing Club has been training young Texans and producing world-class talent, including two Olympians, one world champion, and eight national champions. It is a remarkable story about someone deciding this is what they wanted to do, this is where their passion lies, making the most of it, and creating opportunities for other people.

Gary started the Round Rock Fencing Club with his own money, without any financial support from the government. What he achieved, he achieved on his own. His story is a testament to hard work and human creativity. As Gary puts it: ``The only support I ever got was from my wife and family.''

There are many other business owners like Gary Murray all across Texas and all across this great country.

Before my colleagues advocate higher taxes on these businesses, perhaps they should spend some time talking to the job creators and small business people and the entrepreneurs about the myriad challenges and obstacles government places in their way because of high taxes and overregulation. I suspect my colleagues might learn something.

I yield the floor.

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