Washington, D.C.– U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor today regarding the competing visions behind today’s tax votes: whether it’s a good idea to raise taxes on nearly a million business owners at a time when millions of Americans are struggling to find work, or not to raise anyone’s taxes and commit to future reform.
“For nearly four years now, Democrat leaders in Washington have claimed to want what’s best for the economy but have done just about everything you can think of from a policy perspective to undermine it.
“Whether it’s overwhelming businesses with red tape, burdening them with a costly new health care law, or punting on major economic decisions until after the election, Democrats have done everything you’d expect of a party more focused on centralizing power in Washington than reviving a weak economy.
“And we’ve got the results to show for it. As a result of the Democrats’ policies, we have fewer jobs today than the day the President took office; more signed up for disability assistance last month than got jobs; and the percentage of Americans who actually can work but aren’t is at its lowest point in decades.
“This is the sad legacy of this President’s economic policies.
“And later today we’ll have a chance to cast a vote for more of the same, or for a plan that will help get us off the hamster-wheel we’ve been on for the past three and a half years.
“I’m referring to the very different proposals we’ll vote on today for dealing with a looming tax hike in January: the Republican plan, which gives every American not only the certainty that their income taxes won’t go up at the end of the year, but that Congress will deliver meaningful tax reform within a year; and the Senate Democrat plan, which raises taxes on a million small business owners at a moment when we’re counting on them to create jobs, raises taxes on thousands of family farmers and small business owners grieving the loss of a loved one, leaves a middle-class tax hike in place, and reforms nothing.
“We’d also like to vote on the President’s plan, though it appears Democrats will deny him that vote.
“I’ll leave it to others to explain the finer points of these plans. But one thing that stands out, as I’ve indicated, is the Democrat proposal to raise the death tax. This is one of their bright ideas to revive the economy: dramatically lower the exemption level, so more families get hit by it, and dramatically increase the amount of the tax itself. Under their plan, family members who inherit a farm or ranch would have to write a check for 55 percent of the value of the property and equipment above $1 million — all but guaranteeing that tens of thousands of small and mid-size family businesses across the country will be broken up and handed over to the government instead of passed on to the next generation.
“Now, I know some Democrats will try to justify their vote on this stunningly bad proposal by saying they’ll deal with the assault on family farms later. Wrong: the Democrat bill we’ll vote on today, by not addressing the problem, makes the tax liability for these families even worse. A vote for the Democrat plan is a vote to put these farms and ranches out of business. There will be no stand-alone bill signed into law on the death tax, and anyone who says otherwise isn’t being straight with the American people.
“But that’s just one difference between our plan and theirs. The most important difference is this: only ours is aimed at helping the economy. Only ours is meant to help struggling Americans in the midst of a historic jobs crisis. Theirs is meant to deflect attention from their continued failure to reverse it.
“Throughout this entire debate, not a single Democrat has come forward to claim that raising taxes on job creators will help the economy — because they can’t. Their real motives are based on an ideological agenda, not an economic one.
“Ordinarily, Republicans would do everything we can to keep a plan as damaging as the Democrats’ from passing. And the only reason we won’t block it today is that we know it doesn’t pass constitutional muster and won’t become law. If the Democrats were serious, they’d proceed to a House originated revenue bill as the Constitution requires.
“That said, the potential consequences of inaction on this issue are so grave that the American people deserve to know where their elected representatives truly stand.
“And that’s why Republicans will allow a simple majority vote on the two proposals I’ve described, and that’s why we’re also calling for a simple majority vote on the President’s plan. He’s the leader of the Democratic Party; he’s been calling for a vote on his plan. I for one think we should give it to him.
“The only way to force people to take a stand is to make sure that today’s votes truly count. By setting these votes at a 50-vote threshold, nobody on the other side can hide behind a procedural vote while leaving their views on the actual bill itself a mystery to the people who sent them here.
“That’s what today’s votes are all about: about showing the people who sent us here where we stand.
“We owe it to the American people to let them know whether we actually think it’s a good idea to double down on the failed economic policies of the past few years, or whether we support a new approach; whether we think it’s a good idea to raise taxes on nearly a million business owners at a moment when millions of Americans are struggling to find work; or to do no harm and commit to future reform.
“Three votes, two visions. The American people should know where we stand; today they will.”