Providing for Expedited Consideration of Certain Nominations
Floor Speech
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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, millions of Americans are hurt economically. Yet so much of the debate on the Senate floor seems to be Democrats and Republicans fighting with each other or rehashing old arguments. It seems almost as if there is a default strategy: either pound on the other party or recycle some of the stale positions that have been repeated again and again.
Senator Coats and I believe that none of this really does anything to help the millions of Americans who are out of work or get the economy moving again. The two of us have been coming to the floor of the Senate, and will continue to do so in the days ahead, to talk about what really works, what really works to get the American economy moving again.
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An example would be tax reform, tax reform like the sort of tax reform that was passed when Democrats and Ronald Reagan teamed up. That tax reform effort helped to create 6.3 million new jobs in the 2 years after it was enacted. No one can say there is any one factor that alone creates millions of new jobs, but it certainly didn't hurt. Certainly, it helped to set the economic climate, Democrats and Republicans coming together. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the 2 years after that kind of bipartisan effort, the country created 6.3 million new jobs.
It is not going to be possible, of course, to pass comprehensive tax reform between now and August 2. But Senator Coats and I have said that as part of these budget negotiations, as part of the effort to deal with the budget in a comprehensive way and to deal with the debt ceiling issue, it ought to be possible to lock in for consideration in the fall and in the remainder of this Congress the kind of bipartisan effort that we saw a quarter of a century ago that represents an idea that really works; an idea with a proven track record of working to boost the economy that has been bipartisan, where Democrats and Republicans, instead of spending their time pounding on each other, say: Let's come together and eliminate some of these ridiculous special interest tax breaks which are limiting our ability to grow and create family-wage jobs.
Senator Coats and I are going to spend a few minutes this afternoon talking about the impact of real tax reform on jobs and economic growth. I would just like to start by thanking my friend from Indiana. He has been a pleasure to work with. But his reaction to that kind of approach, where we focus on really what works, especially between now and August 2 in these budget negotiations, Democrats and Republicans having an opportunity to look at spending and look at growth to make sure that out of those negotiations by August 2 there is a way to lock in for the fall and the remainder of the Congress the effort to promote bipartisan tax reform and get our economy growing again--I would be interested in hearing my colleague's reaction to that.
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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I thank my friend. We are going to talk through some of the specifics of why this is important as a way to boost the economy. In the beginning, what I would like to just lay out is that as we have seen these discussions go forward over the last couple of months about boosting the economy, invariably the fight comes down to the question of whether we ought to spend more in order, particularly in a consumer-driven economy, to create jobs and put our folks back to work.
What Senator Coats and I have described is an opportunity and a way that is deficit neutral. As my friend from Indiana knows, this has been demonstrated by our analysis from the Joint Committee on Taxation. This is a deficit-neutral strategy for putting our people back to work because by eliminating some of these special interest tax breaks--and thousands and thousands of them have gotten into the Tax Code over the last quarter century--we can take those foolish tax breaks off the revenue roles and use those very same dollars to create what we call red, white, and blue jobs to put people back to work in the manufacturing sector in Indiana. Of course, the President and I know how deep the hurt is in our home State.
I wanted to begin this by way of making sure that folks saw last month's job report as a wake-up call that would indicate that current economic policies are not creating the jobs our citizens and our economy need and would specifically be willing to look at new approaches, new approaches in the sense that they be genuinely bipartisan but proven in the sense that they have a track record.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the national unemployment rate at 9.1 percent in May. As the distinguished Presiding Officer knows, we have parts of rural Oregon with unemployment that probably, if you were to calculate the real rate of unemployment, is over 20 percent. So the economic hurt is enormous. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that of almost 14 million Americans who want to work but cannot find jobs, almost half of them have been out of work for 27 weeks or more. Of the employed, 8.5 million have to settle for part-time jobs. Among the hardest hit are young people, the people who are trying to get in the workforce, are anxious to show that they have good work habits and discipline but cannot find work.
We lost 8.5 million jobs between the worst of the fiscal crisis and the end of 2010, and only a small portion of those jobs has been created. Moreover, many of the new jobs that have been created do not pay as much as the jobs that were lost, in particular, the loss of manufacturing jobs. So many of our citizens, when they can get alternative employment, end up with wages far less than what they made in manufacturing. In addition, income inequality is growing because high school graduates have a jobless rate twice that of college graduates.
With millions of Americans struggling to find jobs, Senator Coats and I wish to spend a few minutes to talk about how we can come together, and talk about ways to grow the economy. I have mentioned there is a proven track record in terms of tax reform helping. Because of the historic tax reform in 1986 between populist Democrats such as former Congressman Dick Gephardt and the late President Reagan, we had 6.3 million new nonfarm jobs created in the 2 years after that law was passed. I believe it can happen again.
The Manufacturers Alliance forecasts that Senator Coats and I, with our legislation, might have the opportunity to create nearly 2 million new jobs. The Heritage Foundation came in with the same sort of analysis.
We can never lose sight of the need to create jobs in an economy such as this. I wish to bring my colleague into the discussion at this point because he has done so much work, not just in Indiana--where they have, to their credit, focused on a manufacturing strategy for our country--but as part of this bipartisan effort, and get his sense of why the approach we are advocating today could be an economic boost for our country.
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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I am glad Senator Coats made that last point, especially because it is getting hardly any discussion here in the Senate, and that is with respect to the weak consumption we are seeing in our country, particularly middle-class folks who have the sense that there is not going to be economic security right now. They do not have as much money in their pockets as they would like. They have suffered huge shocks that have caused them to pull back from some of the purchases they would otherwise make.
The Presiding Officer of the Senate has done outstanding work with respect to trying to protect middle-class people who lost all this equity in their homes. That usually serves as some kind of collateral for folks with a need to get a loan. That has not been there. We have had folks underemployed in much of the workforce.
What we see is that in our economy, which has always been consumer driven, as Senator Coats has pointed out, we are not seeing the kind of demand from middle-class folks for goods and services. They are not going out and buying the refrigerator they might wish to have for their family. They cannot get a computer for their child. They are not able to make the purchases that are so important in a consumer-driven economy.
What Senator Coats and I are saying is that as Democrats such as Dick Gephardt and former President Ronald Reagan said a quarter century ago, they want to come together and put money into people's pockets. They want to make sure the middle-class folks--who are just getting clobbered, as we have seen for months now--would be in a position to get back into the economy and start demanding some of those
goods and services that are so important for long-term economic well-being.
Senator Coats and I have sought to put more money into people's pockets by repealing the alternative minimum tax. We had an excellent hearing in Chairman Baucus's committee yesterday on simplification.
Get this. The middle-class person is now essentially going through bureaucratic water torture on this alternative minimum tax. They have to fill out their taxes twice on two separate systems. What Senator Coats and I have said is let's repeal it. That will put some money back into the pockets of middle-class folks. As Senator Coats has pointed out, middle-class folks won't have to spend all that money paying out for accountants and all kinds of other people, trying to fill out all those alternative minimum tax forms. We will put some money into the pockets of the middle class that way.
Senator Coats and I also advocate nearly tripling the standard deduction for all our taxpayers, which again can be a real boon for the middle-class consumer, which can help us spur consumer demand and, with that, job creation.
I am very glad Senator Coats has zeroed in on the question of the consequences of underconsumption by consumers.
I think I would next probably like to have my friend go through some of the benefits we wish to provide to small business. We all know that small business is the job creator, the job engine of our economy.
If Senator Coats would outline some of the benefits that on a bipartisan basis we ought to be zeroing in on with respect to small businesses, I think that would be very helpful.
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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I thank my friend from Indiana. He makes a number of important points we want to make sure are considered as the discussion about taxes goes forward. For example, Senator Coats pointed out on this question of changing just the corporate tax alone--what are essentially C corporations--the reality is the vast majority of businesses in this country are not C corporations; they are partnerships, limited liability corporations, sole proprietorships. They are about 80 percent of the businesses in this country. So Senator Coats has made the important point that to bring about tax reform, we can't just go with corporate taxation. We have to get at the needs of millions and millions of these small businesses.
Chairman Bernanke was asked about this in the Budget Committee, and he said specifically that it was important to do comprehensive reform in order to generate the best opportunity for economic growth and job creation rather than corporate reform alone. Senator Coats also makes an important point, as we wrap up, about the temporary nature of our Tax Code and how frustrating that is to American businesses that need to have some capacity to predict what is ahead to generate jobs.
The Wall Street Journal reported the other day that the only thing permanent about the American Tax Code is that it is temporary, and we have more than quadrupled the number of temporary provisions in the Tax Code in just the last few years. That uncertainty discourages businesses from investing in growth and hiring, as Senator Coats has noted, and that is why it is going to be important to look at the Tax Code in a comprehensive way, both for individuals and corporations, so that going forward, all our taxpayers have some sense of predictability and certainty about what their tax treatment will entail.
My last point is, I recently had a chance to talk to one of the veterans of the 1986 tax reform debate, and we visited about some of the circumstances involved in that historic reform and some of the challenges ahead. When he was done, he said: What in the world is holding people up from getting going on this? What is really holding everybody up? We know what we need to do. There have been commissions, a whole host of them. President Obama had an excellent one that agreed with much of what we have talked about this afternoon. President George W. Bush had a commission that was chaired by several of our former colleagues. I thought much of their proposal was on point. That is why what one of the veterans of that 1986 reform legislation had to say to me about ``what is holding people up'' is so important.
As Senator Coats noted, we are not going to do comprehensive tax reform between now and August 2. Everybody understands that. But there is absolutely no reason--in order to come together in the Senate with an approach that doesn't add to the Federal deficit, with the proven track record of helping to advance economic security--that between now and August 2, as part of these budget negotiations, there is no reason in that agreement we shouldn't lock in a strategy for getting on to tax reform in the fall and in the remainder of this Congress.
So I thank Senator Coats. He mentioned Senator Gregg. I feel so fortunate to have had two colleagues--and we were in the House together--having an opportunity, Senator Coats and I, to work together on this in the Senate. I think we have always believed that we ought to focus on what works rather than the default strategy of rehashing old arguments and just having these partisan fights. So I thank Senator Coats. We will have our eye on the effort between now and August 2 to make sure tax reform gets the place it deserves for the fall and the remainder of the Congress.
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