Providing for Consideration of Senate Amendment to H.J. Res. 66, Permanent Tax Relief for Families and Small Businesses Act of 2012, and Providing for Consieration of H.R. 6684, Spending Reduction Act of 2012
Floor Speech
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Ms. VELÁZQUEZ. I thank the gen tle lady for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this rule and the underlying legislation. This measure punishes working families just to deliver more tax breaks for the wealthy.
Under this legislation, those making over $1 million a year will receive an average tax cut of $50,000. That is not the 1 percent. It is the top one-third of the 1 percent. Meanwhile, 25 million working families will pay an average of $1,000 more in taxes.
For those families that are struggling to find work in this difficult economy, this bill is equally bad. Two million Americans will lose unemployment benefits next month, pushing them out into the cold.
Retirees and seniors will also be hurt. With a 27 percent cut in Medicare payments, 50 million seniors will see their health care endangered.
Mr. Speaker, what the American people are watching right here right now is a tragic comedy, because the other side knows quite well that, even if this legislation passes the House today, it is going nowhere. So here we are, with time running out, rather than coming up with real compromise, we are playing another game of political charades. That is not what the American people want us to do.
I urge my colleagues, reject this bill so we can come up with a solution that becomes law, addresses our fiscal challenges while protecting working families.
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