Weekly Outlook:  

Today the Senate begins two weeks of session prior to the April 30 recess week.  The Senate convened at 2:00 p.m. today and resumed consideration of the motion to proceed to S. 2230, the Buffett Tax bill.

At 5:30 p.m., the Senate will conduct two votes: confirmation of Executive Calendar #460, Stephanie Dawn Thacker of West Virginia to be United States circuit judge for the Fourth Circuit, and cloture on the motion to proceed to S. 2230.

After tonight’s votes, it is anticipated that Senator Reid will move to reconsider the failed cloture vote on the motion to proceed to S. 1789, the postal reform bill.  Following the disposition of S. 1789, the Senate is expected to take up S. 1925, the Violence Against Women Act.

During this two-week work period, the Senate is also expected to consider S.J. Res. 36, a resolution of disapproval of the National Labor Relations Board’s rule on ambush union elections.

The Senate Budget Committee is expected to mark up a fiscal year 2013 budget on Wednesday, although floor consideration of a budget resolution is unlikely at this point.  The Senate Appropriations Committee will begin markups this week as well, starting with CJS and THUD. 

Additional items which may be brought up in the next two weeks include:

• Nominations, particularly judicial nominations;
• Cybersecurity; and
• Iran sanctions legislation.

SRC Video Clip:

Democrats’ “None of the Above” Energy Strategy:

Block Energy Production, Push Higher Taxes

What’s Being Said – Senate Republican Conference & Senate Republican Communications Center:

• All Sides Blast Buffett Tax: Nonpartisan Reviewers Are Crushing the Buffett Tax as ‘a Hoax on Voters,’ a ‘Total Sham,’ ‘Desperate.’ Even Dems Admit It’s ‘Not Going To Help’

• Dems Split On Gas Price Debate: Even Within Their Own Caucus, Senate Democrats Are at Odds Over Whether Raising Taxes on Energy Manufacturers Is a Good Idea

• Dems Admit: Gas Tax Not ‘About Lowering Prices’: According to Dems, Their Tax Hike on Energy Manufacturers ‘Won’t Decrease Prices at the Pump,’ They Say It’s Not ‘About Reducing Gas Prices’

• Dem Govs Blast Unfunded Mandates: Democrat Governors Are Calling Obamacare’s Medicaid Mandates ‘Devastating,’ Say They ‘Have No Idea How We’re Going to Pay For It’

• On April Fools’ Day, the Joke Is on US: United States Reaches Highest Corporate Tax in the World

SRC Policy Note:

Obama’s Buffett Tax:

Won’t Lower Gas Prices, Create Jobs, Reduce the Debt

Raising Taxes Will Not Lower Gas Prices

• Gasoline prices have more than doubled since President Obama was inaugurated, which hurts struggling middle-class families and small, local businesses trying to compete and create jobs.

• Instead of focusing on commonsense solutions to increase domestic energy production, which would lower prices at the pump, President Obama continues to play politics.

• President Obama’s Buffett Tax will hurt job creators, who are struggling to retain and hire workers while dealing with a weak economy and soaring gas prices that drain billions of dollars out of our economic recovery.  

Raising Taxes Will Not Create a Single Job (except maybe at the IRS)

• Four out of five people hit by the new tax are business owners, who are a critical source of new job creation.

• Since his inauguration, President Obama’s economic policies have made the economy worse.
  • Unemployment has been above 8 percent for more than 37 months.
  • The poverty rate for women is at a 17-year high.
  • Nearly 700,000 fewer women are working today than when Obama took office.

• Raising taxes on job creators will kill job opportunities for the 13 million unemployed Americans.

• The U.S. corporate tax rate just became number one in the world, and President Obama wants to make the U.S. tax on investment the highest among developed countries during a struggling economy, which will only discourage investment.

President Obama’s Buffett Tax Will Not Reduce the Debt

• The U.S. federal debt stands at a staggering $15.6 trillion, which means every man, woman, and child in this country owes nearly $50,000.

• President Obama’s Buffett Tax would cover just 0.7 percent of the total new debt the president has proposed for the next decade.

• The Buffett Tax would raise $5 billion per year, which under the president’s budget would only cover one and a half days of borrowing during fiscal year 2012.

President Obama and congressional Democrats want to raise taxes so they can spend more money on failed policies like Solyndra and Obamacare.

Republican Efforts to Strengthen the Economy:

• Senator Thune: Buffett Tax: Political Distraction that Won’t Create Jobs, Reduce Gas Prices, or Rein in Federal Spending (Read More)

• Senator Cornyn on Buffett Report: ‘Partisan Manifesto’ Justifying Tax Hike (Read More)

• Senator Hoeven Stumps for Gas Pump Plan (Read More)

• Tax and Regulatory Uncertainty Are Top Concerns at Senator Scott Brown’s Small Business Roundtable  (Read More)

• Senator Cornyn Announces Small Business Taxpayer Bill of Rights in Houston (Read More)

• Boehner, McConnell Call on President Obama to Rule Out Midnight Regulations & Protect Jobs (Read More)

• Leader McConnell: Republicans Will Continue to Push for Increasing Economic Growth Through Trade With Allies (Read More)

• Senator Enzi Washington Times Op-Ed: Halting union attack on employee privacy (Read More)