Unanimous-Consent Request--S. 3981

Floor Speech

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Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, I agree with my friend from Wyoming. We need certainty in the marketplace, and we are happy to do that. We are happy to create certainty right now that middle-class taxpayers and small businesses will be able to receive tax cuts permanently into the future, that we will be able to extend those tax cuts.

We also believe it is important to give certainty to people who are out of work through no fault of their own, who yesterday began to lose unemployment benefits.

Now, I personally believe, as long as the economy is as sluggish, as slow, as challenged as it is, we ought to extend benefits beyond 99 weeks. But the bill in front of us is not that. It is the bill Senator Boxer talked about, which is just the basic program. The program basically says, if you lose your job today you have the same opportunity to receive some temporary help as the person who lost their job on Monday or Tuesday because, right now, the Republicans have been blocking us from even extending the basic program for anyone who is newly unemployed, newly out of work.

So I think people who are out of work at this holiday season would like some certainty.

I was interested in a story in the paper today--I believe it was today--quoting the Michigan Retailers Association concerned about Christmas and the inability to have unemployment benefits extended would directly relate to the ability of families to have any kind of opportunity to have Christmas, and it would affect retailers and small businesses. They would like to see some certainty. I would also like to see a more robust effort and certainty as it relates to jobs.

When we look at the way to stimulate the economy, the way to create jobs, the budget folks tell us the No. 1 way right now to keep the economy going is to help those who have no choice but to spend the dollars in their pockets. That is somebody who is out of work. That is the No. 1 way to stimulate the economy, to try to keep things moving, and certainly we have heard that from our retailers. On a long list, the least effective was to give another bonus tax cut to millionaires and billionaires. That was the least effective.

So I agree we want economic certainty. What I would love to see is to take those dollars that have been ineffective for 10 years--and we know that simply because it hasn't created jobs. I have lost over 800,000 jobs in Michigan, 10 years of tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. I have one question: Where are the jobs? If my colleagues can answer that, I am happy to support that policy.

What I would suggest as an alternative is that now, just a little under 2 years ago, we invested in the recovery to, for the first time in many, many, many years, invest in American manufacturing: battery manufacturing, new clean energy manufacturing, making things in America, making things at home. And we are beginning to see every month now manufacturing slowly coming up. The investment in the American automobile industry has paid off for us in turning things around, in keeping manufacturing jobs here. We are moving from 2 percent of the manufacturing of advanced battery technologies in America to 40 percent of the world's manufacturing in 5 years because of a strategic investment.

I am happy to talk about those kinds of investments, but what we have heard from Republican colleagues is that they are willing to risk everything. They will risk everything to get another tax cut, a bonus tax cut on top of the one everybody is going to get if we extend tax cuts for the first $250,000 in income per couple. They want a bonus tax cut, and they are willing to risk everything and stop everything if they can't get it. So it is very clear what their priorities are.

I can speak from Michigan that these are not our priorities. When I look at our manufacturers, our suppliers; when I look at small businesses; when I look at families who are struggling to keep their homes to stay in the middle class--maybe trying to get into the middle class--working families, their priority is not to give somebody making $1 million a year another $100,000 bonus on top of the regular tax cut.

So what are we talking about? We are talking about everything being risked for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. What are some of the things we are risking? Another $700 billion on the national debt. If we want to deal with the debt--and I don't know about my colleagues, but I heard an awful lot about the debt, concern about the deficit in this last election and through this last year. There were concerns when we were investing in manufacturing, investing in other things to create jobs, helping small businesses; the tax cuts for small businesses, lending for small businesses. We heard an awful lot from the other side of the aisle about the fact that we shouldn't be doing these things because of the deficit. The most important thing was the deficit.

I am not willing to be lectured about the deficit. I voted to balance the budget when I was in the House under President Clinton. We handed President Bush a balanced budget, the largest surplus in the history of the country. So I am not willing to accept that. I have great concern about the deficit, but that concern means I don't want to see $700 billion put on the national debt for a bonus tax cut for millionaires and billionaires.

So they are willing to risk the national deficit. They are willing to risk jobs. Again, the least stimulative way to create jobs is to put another bonus round of tax cuts in the hands of millionaires and billionaires who, if they invest it--we don't know whether it will be overseas, taking jobs overseas or where it will be--but we know it hasn't trickled down to the people I represent, certainly, in Michigan.

The sense I get from the other side of the aisle is that they think we just haven't waited long enough; we haven't waited long enough for it to trickle down. Well, we are tired of waiting. We are tired of waiting, and we are tired of an economic policy of tax cuts geared to those up here when it doesn't work and we are losing jobs. Under that policy of trickle-down economics, Michigan lost over 800,000 jobs in the last 10 years. I am tired of that. I want to see a policy that is going to work. That one hasn't worked. I don't see why in the world we are willing to extend it.

They are willing to hold up the tax cuts for middle-class families and small businesses. Again, I am not willing to be lectured about small business when we have seen 16 different small business tax cuts filibustered in the last 2 years on the other side of the aisle; eight tax cuts in the small business jobs bill that only two colleagues from the other side of the aisle courageously stepped over to support. So we understand the importance of small business.

Social Security and Medicare: We have a debt commission that has a number of proposals that are very difficult on Social Security and Medicare, and that is based on the deficit we have now not another $700 billion. I wonder if my colleagues are willing to support cuts in Social Security and Medicare, additional cuts to pay for their tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. I don't know. Is that what they are suggesting? It certainly is something that could happen if we add another $700 billion.

Then there is the one we have been talking about that is not an economic issue but a moral issue for us as a country: Are we going to help folks who have gotten caught up in this country and who find themselves in a situation that is unprecedented through no fault of their own? They didn't cause the recklessness on Wall Street. They were not the ones who made the decision not to enforce trade laws in a fair way or tax policy that allows jobs to go overseas.

The people in my State were not the ones who made any of the decisions that caused the situation they are in. Yet Wall Street did pretty well. A lot of folks did pretty well. A lot of folks now are back doing very well.

The folks left holding the bag are working families, folks who have been in the middle class and are now mortified because they have to go ask for help at a food bank for the first time in their lives. That is not an unusual situation in my State; people who have always worked, who want to work but find themselves in a situation, because of the economy, they did not create; where they now have to ask that our country be willing to support them at this time for their families until we can turn this economy around. Who are we if we are not willing to do that as a country?

Frankly, I am embarrassed we are having a debate on the floor of the Senate about whether to extend help for somebody who has lost their job, the bread winner who no longer can bring home the bread versus a $100,000 bonus tax cut for a millionaire next year, and whatever it is for billionaires. I find that embarrassing, and I find it more than that, actually. If ever we are going to talk about our values and priorities and get them right in terms of what affects the majority of Americans, it ought to be when we are looking at these choices.

People in my State want to work. They want us to focus on jobs. They want us to partner with business. They want us to do those things; when it is necessary, stand back, get out of the way; stand up and partner, do all of the things that will allow us in a global economy to compete, to be able to make things in America and, of course, I prefer they be made in Michigan. But they want jobs. They want the economy to turn around.

Nobody is out there asking for a handout. They do want us to understand what they are going through and to be willing to have the same sense of
urgency about the average family in this country as we did for the Wall Street banks. That is ultimately what we are talking about on this floor, is what the priorities are going to be.

Our colleagues have sent a letter, with everybody signing it, saying they are not willing to do anything else. They are not willing to extend unemployment benefits. Two million people started losing their benefits yesterday--temporary help, by the way--$250 to $300 a week, which just barely kind of maybe keeps the heat on, because it is getting cold in Michigan, and a roof over their heads while they are desperately sending resumes out all over the country.

I get on planes now with people who are flying all over the country because they want to work. They are flying all over the place and coming home on the weekends, trying to find work. Our colleagues say: Well, you know what. Forget them. They need to wait because the most important thing is extending the tax cuts for the wealthiest people in our country.

I happen to--as we all do--know a lot of people in that category who say to me: I am willing to do my share. I am not asking you for this. I am willing to do my share. I have done well. I understand we have a national deficit. I understand we have a country that has a lot of challenges right now, and I am willing to step up and do my part. So this is not trying to beat up on people or demagogue against people who have worked hard, in many cases, and done well for themselves. But it is about having a set of priorities about what is important. In the few days we have left between now and the end of the year, what is the most important thing we could be doing?

I know other colleagues wish to speak. Let me just say, in my judgment, we can create certainty. It certainly doesn't have to be extending tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. It certainly can be extending tax cuts for the middle class and small businesses, creating certainty with the R&D tax credit for those who want to innovate and invest. There are other kinds of certainty we can create for businesses in our Tax Code. We need to do that before the end of the year.

We need to remember that there are a whole lot of families right now who are trying to create some certainty in their lives about whether they can put up a Christmas tree because they are still going to have their house. That is not rhetoric; that is happening to people. We as Democrats are not willing to risk all this. The Republicans may be willing to risk everything to give a bonus tax cut to millionaires and billionaires, but we are fighting for everybody else.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

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