On the recordDecember 16, 2010
I thank the gentleman for yielding. I don't have time to detail all that is wrong with this bill, so I will focus on one very small part of it. It's the Social Security payroll reduction. I want everybody in this body to remember this figure, this one number: $2,136. $2,136--that's the raise that we're all giving ourselves with this bill. That's the raise that we're giving ourselves, and we're borrowing every penny of it from our kids and our grandkids, or probably China. $2,136. We don't know where that came from. I asked people in this body, How did that provision get in here? It's not part of extending current tax rates, keeping the tax rates current. This is something completely new. We're told, Oh, somebody in the Senate put that in. But nobody has sought to remove it here. But keep in mind, again, $2,136. That's how much every Member of this body--because all of us make more than $106,000 a year, so all of us are giving ourselves a $2,136 raise with this legislation. We had better remember it because the voters certainly will. As I mentioned, we're borrowing this money. We don't have it. We can't pull it from another account. There is nothing in the Social Security Trust Fund to take it from, so we're borrowing it, every penny of it. So just remember that number, $2,136. That's the raise we are giving ourselves with this legislation. I urge a ``no'' vote.
