American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010--Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. DeMINT. Mr. President, I rise today to congratulate the University of South Carolina men's baseball team for making history by winning the NCAA College World Series last night.

Whit Merrifield's clutch hit in the 11th inning brought home the winning run and gave USC its first ever national championship for any men's team at the university.

In spite of losing their first game in Omaha, the team persevered through multiple elimination games. They were motivated by the courageous spirit of one young fan, Bayler Teal, who at age 7 may have been the biggest Gamecock fan in America. He suffered from a rare form of cancer and died last Thursday during the Gamecock's come-from-behind victory over Oklahoma. He wore his Gamecock ball cap the day he died.

Fortunately, Bayler's parents and 5-year-old brother were able to be in Omaha last night to see the Gamecocks win the final game of the College World Series.

So today I join all South Carolinians and Gamcocks fans everywhere to congratulate the players, Coach Ray Tanner, and his staff for an outstanding victory.

Now all America knows that USC means the University of South Carolina. Go Gamecocks.

FIRST-TIME HOME BUYER TAX CREDIT

Mr. President, I want to speak in objection to the majority's latest attempt to secretly push through another extension of the first-time home buyer tax credit--the third time the Senate has modified or extended this credit since July of 2008, when it was originally included in the majority's Housing and Economic Recovery Act.

Home buyer tax credits have several flaws, and I opposed them in the past because I believe they are a temporary infusion of capital into the marketplace and simply increase the government's grip on our Nation's economic growth.

As often happens when the government becomes involved in attempting to grow a portion of the Nation's economy, we only create a bubble that will eventually burst. As the National Association of Realtors said in late April, shortly before the expiring of the tax credit on April 30:

It is time for the housing market to stand on its own feet.

It is time for the government to stop picking winners and losers in the housing market based on arbitrary dates and arbitrary qualifications. For the people who haven't closed on their homes by today, it is not that they won't get their house; it is only that they won't get a taxpayer subsidy for having bought a house now rather than later. This taxpayer subsidy has been funded by their neighbor, who may not have had the opportunity to buy on the government time line.

We have watched this majority push through big spending bills and targeted government credits. What we have learned is that government spending does not grow economic prosperity; rather, government spending grows deficits. It creates economic bubbles. Without a doubt, it increases taxes.

For 18 months, this majority has created a false sense of hope for consumers and markets while increasing taxes on small businesses and the most productive and hard-working Americans. Rather than creating tax equality and predictability for all Americans, this Congress has tried to force taxpayers to subsidize the purchasing of cars, homes, and even appliances.

We know what works. When American businesses have the predictability of low tax rates, they in turn invest in job creation and create real economic growth.

The enormous amount of spending this Congress has taken on is unsustainable and will eventually lead to the highest tax increases in our Nation's history.

This bill is no different. I ask my colleagues, how many times do we need to extend this home buyer tax credit? What do we tell the people who bought their homes just before it started, and the ones who bought their homes right after it expired? Do we say their mortgage rates will be higher for the whole time they own their home, and their taxes will be paying for their neighbor's home, who happened to buy in the government's window of opportunity?

The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has called the home buyer credit ``Washington's worst tax policy idea.'' They have estimated that the $12.6 billion already spent on this program through February created ``close to zero'' jobs and that at least 85 percent of these buyers would have likely purchased a home anyway.

Also, the Treasury Department's inspector general found the home buyer credit has been riddled with fraud and chronicled over 14,000 instances of false claims. This is typical of government programs. The report ``found as many as 67 taxpayers using the same home to claim the credit''--the same home. It also found that over 1,000 prisoners received credit for homes they claimed to buy while in jail.

How is it fair to subsidize Americans who purchased their first home only because they purchased it on the government's timetable?

With this latest extension of the credit, the majority is not only cutting defense spending to fund the credits, but now it is admitting that taxing Americans at the highest rates in history isn't enough. Now they are going to tax foreign visitors to pay for buying our homes in America.

My hope is that my colleagues will use the recess next week to finally listen to the millions of Americans who are tired of this Congress choosing winners and losers. They are tired of the excessive spending, and they are fearful of tax increases yet to come. They are telling us very clearly: Stop spending, stop borrowing, stop adding to the debt, and stop the government takeovers.

Most of all, they agree on one thing: This Congress needs to get out of the way and let America get back to work.

UNANIMOUS-CONSENT REQUEST--H.R. 3371

Mr. President, I will now speak on the status of the Federal Aviation Administration legislation and, hopefully, move the process along a great deal. At the end of this, I will offer a unanimous consent request.

As many Senators will remember, early last year a small commuter plane crashed just outside Buffalo, NY. The accident killed all 49 people onboard and one person on the ground.

In the months following the crash, the Senate Commerce Committee and its aviation subcommittee held a number of hearings to get a better understanding of what exactly went wrong during Flight 3407 and what Congress could do to help fix it.

I thank Senator Dorgan in particular for his leadership on this issue. From those lessons we have learned and during the drafting of the FAA reauthorization, our colleagues in the House worked with us, and we were able to craft a number of important reforms that formed the safety section of both the House and the Senate reauthorization bills.

Let me take a moment to outline some of them: an FAA pilots records database. Had we had a database like the one we have in this bill, it would be very likely that the pilot of Flight 3407 would not have been allowed to fly that day.

Increased hourly requirements for copilots: If we had these requirements, the copilot on Flight 3407 would have had more experience, and we may have averted a disaster.

There are a number of improvements in the House bill, including enhanced mentoring for pilots, increased

utilization of safety management programs, better crew management initiatives, as well as clearer responses to NTSB safety recommendations. All of these reforms will go a long way to improving aviation safety.

Sadly, we have yet to get this legislation across the finish line that would implement these reforms. Parochial politics, political payoffs, and backroom deals are keeping these important safety measures from passing.

Some Members are trying to cut special deals for special flights to their States. Numerous Members are looking to impose new taxes on travelers already burdened by too much taxation. Some Congressmen are trying to cut a special deal for their buddies in the labor unions. All of these things are beside the point and are exactly what aviation policy should not be about.

Since last October, the Senate has had a bill sitting before us that will immediately implement the reforms that the families of Flight 3407 have been calling for. They have waited too long. The fights over FedEx, taxes, and special flights aren't going to go away anytime soon. If we let them, these controversial issues will continue to hold up the safety provisions on which we all agree.

Let's say that enough is enough; it is time to pass the safety improvements and let the rest of the FAA stand on its own.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 3371 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; that the bill be read the third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.

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Mr. DeMINT. Madam President, I very much support the extension, but I have asked that this safety provision be moved along with it so that we can get this done instead of continuing to allow it to be held hostage to political interests on the bill.

I would be supportive of a unanimous consent request that would extend the FAA authorization 30 days if it included my request for the safety provisions of the bill.

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Mr. DeMINT. Madam President, we have been promised for months that this bill, the FAA reauthorization, which the Senator from North Dakota and I approve, would go through. The families of flight 3407 have been here constantly. As the Senator knows, one of those families is from my hometown. They have waited long enough. There is no reason that we need to hold these safety provisions hostage to passing a whole bill that is bogged down in political fights.

I ask unanimous consent to amend my unanimous consent request to include the 30-day reauthorization of FAA. There are none of these provisions the Senator objects to. If there are additional safety provisions that can be in the final bill, we can do that. But nothing in my request compromises what the Senator from North Dakota wants to accomplish. I ask unanimous consent to amend my UC to call up and pass H.R. 5611.

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Mr. DeMINT. Reserving the right to object, Madam President, I assure the Senator I am in complete support not only of the 30-day extension but the bill he and I passed out of the Senate. Believe me, I was here for that and very much support it. If the Senator's colleagues will accept it the way we passed it through the Senate, it would be done today. But because of this holdup, what I consider safety provisions being held up unnecessarily for political reasons, I object

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