Mr. President, I rise today to address the House bill that we will be passing on economic stimulus and dislocated workers.
On a preliminary note, in normal circumstances, I would note that we should not make a practice of passing House bills as is. These are not, however, normal times and this is not a normal process.
The House bill is really the latest bipartisan product on economic stimulus and aid to dislocated workers. It is a thinner version of last December's agreement between the White House and the Senate Centrists. The bottom line is this bill now enjoys Senate Democratic Leadership support because it has been thinned down.
There's some good news and some bad news. Let's turn first to the good news. This bill is a bipartisan, bicameral product that the President will sign. That's the good news. Help is on the way for unemployed workers and recovering businesses.
Mr. President, the unemployed and struggling businesses have had to wait too long for the good news we deliver today. It's been over five months of long meetings, committee action and floor debates. Finally, we, the United States Senate, will do our duty and act on economic stimulus.
Now, with the President's signature a certainty, several good things will finally happen. First off, the unemployed will get extended benefits. Businesses, large and small, will get a kick start with 30 percent bonus depreciation. That kick start will mean more jobs, so those unemployed workers will be a be able to go back to work. Businesses that have hit hard times will be able to carry back net operating losses for an additional three years. New York City will receive much needed tax relief for the purpose of rebuilding Lower Manhattan. In addition, tax provisions that expired this year will be extended for two years. Finally, Mr. President, our states will receive some relief in the form of an extension and re authorization of portions of the TANF program. These measures are all good news for folks across America.
Now, I said there's some bad news too. That news is derived from all of the proposals dropped from the White House-Centrist Agreement. As I said above, this bipartisan agreement was before us in December, but we were blocked from considering it by the Democratic Leadership. Let's take a look at the things that were dropped.
First off, there was a proposal to accelerate tax relief from last year's bipartisan tax cut legislation. I'm talking about dropping the 27 percent tax rate to 25 percent.
I do not also discount the ideologically-based opposition to accelerating the reduction in the 27 percent percent bracket. It is amazing to me that many on the other side see taxpayers in the 27 percent bracket as rich folks. A two-percent rate cut for single folks earning between $27,051 and $65,550 is seen as a tax cut for the wealthy by the Democratic Leadership. Likewise, a married couple with incomes between $45,201 and $109,250 is considered rich. But I recognize that this tax cut proposal was difficult for the Democratic Leadership to accept.
In this skinnier version, the other element of individual tax relief, this one for payroll taxpayers, was dropped. I'm talking about the rebate checks for payroll taxpayers. The rebate checks are gone. Some on my side will view this omission positively.
So, in terms of tax relief for individuals, forget about it. We weren't able to strike the balance of the White House-Centrist agreement.
There is little in the nature of corporate AMT relief in the thin package. In some ways this is a good result. As I said at the time, the original House bill was too heavy on corporate AMT relief. On the other hand, there were noncontroversial reforms in the corporate AMT that we could've included.
Mr. President, the most disappointing omission related to health care subsidies. We had before us revolutionary social policy in the White House-Centrist Agreement. For the first time, the Congress had sign able legislation that guaranteed health care benefits for laid off workers. The form of the benefit, a refundable tax credit, ran into ideological opposition by some on the other side. Because two-thirds of the Senate Democratic Caucus did not agree with the form of the benefit, unemployed workers will not receive the benefit. That's too bad, Mr. President. We had a chance to move the ball forward on an important bipartisan objective, improving access and affordability of health care. Instead of moving the ball, because of ideology, we had to punt.
All of these were good provisions which enjoy broad bipartisan support. They were the foundation of the White House-Centrist Agreement. Yet because of an ideological fixation, all of these good things may go by the wayside. I believe today, as I did almost three months ago, that, if we had been accorded a straight up or down vote on the White House-Centrist Agreement, we would have prevailed. If we had prevailed, the people would be better served.
Mr. President, unfortunately, it was not to be. So, here we are with a mixed bag. There is good news in terms of extended unemployment benefits, bonus depreciation, and other measures. But there's bad news in terms of missed opportunities.
I yield the floor.