Veterans Jobs Corps Act of 2012--Motion to Proceed--Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. REID. I will talk about cyber security in 1 minute. Let's talk about the minority leader's continual harangue against the President of the United States. Underscore all of this with what my friend the Republican leader said at the beginning of this Congress: The No. 1 issue for him in this Congress is defeating President Obama, and that is how the Republicans have acted. To talk about a Republican tax plan would have to bring a smile to one's face. Yesterday, an organization called the Tax Policy Center--now remember last year Mitt Romney called the Tax Policy Center ``an objective third party'' and cited one of their studies to bash Rick Perry in the Republican primary. So this objective third party said yesterday about Romney's tax plan that my friend the Republican leader wants the American people to grab. The only people to be grabbing that are very rich people.

The vast majority of Mitt Romney's tax plan would go to people just like him, people making millions of dollars every year. Under Romney's plan, folks making more than $3 million a year would get a tax break of almost $250,000 per year. So how will he pay for this massive handout to the top 1 percent? He will hand the bill to 95 percent of the American people. Under his plan, my friend the Republican leader wants--I hope everyone within the sound of my voice listens to this because the Republican plan would require the average middle-class family with children to pay $2,000 more in taxes to take care of the millionaires. Ninety-five percent of families in this country would be asked to pay more so people such as Mitt Romney can get a tax break. Now, that is a great program, a wonderful program.

Last year, I repeat, Mitt Romney called this Tax Policy Center an objective third party when he was once again changing his position during the Republican debates leading up to his nomination. Now that the group has exposed his plan to hike taxes for 95 percent of the American families while handing out more giveaways to millionaires, the Tax Policy Center is suddenly too liberal, his spokespeople say, to be trusted. I would suggest, when we are talking about trust, we need to look no further than the person my friend the Republican leader wants to be President of the United States.

As we know, he has refused to release his tax returns. If a person coming before this body wanted to be a Cabinet officer, he couldn't be if he had the same refusal Mitt Romney does about tax returns. So the word is out that he has not paid any taxes for 10 years. Let him prove he has paid taxes because he has not. We already know from one partial tax return he gave us he has money hidden in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, and a Swiss bank account. I am not making that up. Mitt Romney makes more money in a single day than an average middle-class family makes in 2 years or more.

So let's not talk about this great plan the Republicans have to create jobs. The No. 1 goal in this body by the Republicans has been to damage the President of the United States. They have refused to work with us in creating jobs.

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