Tax and Appropriations

There’s less than a month to go until middle class tax cuts expire, and you’d think Republicans would be feeling the heat to get something done. But what did they discuss at today’s conference meeting?

With millions of Americans still out of work and American families facing a tax increase if the payroll tax cut is not extended this month, it appears Republican conferees are focused on two controversial details: GED’s and drug testing.

Today, the House passed a conference report that adheres to the Budget Control Act and still contains a number of good investments. It demonstrates that responsible Republicans and Democrats can work together to pass legislation to fund the government in line with past agreements and meet our shared responsibility to the American people.

Today’s jobs report shows that we need to take action on jobs immediately. But after more than 300 days in the majority, Republicans have done little to address job creation despite their repeated claims that they would focus on Americans’ top priorities: creating jobs and growing the economy. However, Republican rhetoric doesn’t match their actions.

• The Treasury Department working paper they’ve referenced compares the first four years of tax changes.

This legislation puts the special interests ahead of the public interest by weakening the entity that shields responsible consumers from financial abuses. Last year, Congress passed an important Wall Street reform bill in order to prevent a job-destroying financial crisis from happening again. And one of the most crucial parts of that bill was the creation of a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a watchdog that would look out for the interests of ordinary Americans who want to sign mortgages, apply for student loans, and start businesses on honest and fair terms. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is empowered to ensure that lenders provide clear, plain-language explanations of loan terms—and to stop the kind of abusive and deceptive loan practices that helped drive our economy off a cliff. If such protections had been in place in the last decade, the odds of a crisis would have been significantly less.

From the Democratic Whip Press Shop:

Today, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned against undermining our economic recovery by drastically cutting spending too quickly. Democrats agree with Republicans that we must reduce spending but we also have to ensure that spending cuts don’t harm the economy and impede job creation.

From the Democratic Whip Press Shop:

We hope House Republicans were paying attention to the ethanol vote in the Senate today, as 73 Senators—including 33 Republicans—voted to end these tax breaks.

That’s 33 Republican Senators who finally agreed that the tax code is not off limits when looking to restore fiscal discipline.